


Fate/Grand Order: Blessing of the Fortuity Shard

by BoFS



Category: Fate/Grand Order, Fate/stay night & Related Fandoms
Genre: ALL THE GOOD STUFF, Action, Comedy, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Drama, More characters to be added, The main point of the OCs is for Chaldea to have more staff than literally just Romani and Méuniere
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-02
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-12 06:01:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 40,614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29130729
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BoFS/pseuds/BoFS
Summary: Meetings are something that most people experience often.They can be either frivolous or life-changing. Or anything in between.But there is a type of meeting that is rarer than any other. The type that has occurred scarcely more than a few times throughout Human History.A meeting between two people that could decide the future of Humanity itself.Yet despite its rarity, one day in a research facility built high on a mountain, a meeting like this came to pass.When a young girl came across a red haired girl sleeping in a corridor.[Note: At least knowing the basic story of FGO is recommended for reading this fic.][Honestly, if you don't know the story, why are you reading a fic about it anyway?]
Relationships: Other Relationship Tags to Be Added, Undisclosed Relationship(s)
Kudos: 4





	1. The Onset of a Maiden and her Guardian Knight

On a field of flowers, seemingly endless like an ocean, there stood a single white tower, floating above it like something out of a fairytale. And considering its sole resident, one could be forgiven for believing it to be so. Inside the tower, sat a lone man. Well, “man” isn’t exactly the correct way to describe him, but for the lack of a simpler term, he just went with it.

He had lived in that tower for well over a millennia, simply watching as his main source of entertainment. And while the surroundings could hardly be called entertaining, for him, watching was an entirely different concept when compared to most beings.

He would have been perfectly satisfied with watching till the end of time itself, but now, as rare as it was for him, it was time to act. After all, an unprecedented crisis was about to unfold. His one source of entertainment was in danger! And if he lost that, he would just be an old man looking at his garden for eternity. That was not a fate he’d wish upon himself.

And so, the Great Wizard focused his sight on his target. Towards a lone research facility tucked away on a snowy mountain. And there, slowly walking through an empty hallway, was the key to his predicament. A young woman with hair as red as a coat of a fox and eyes as yellow as a lovely flower. Already drowsy thanks to the trip to the Simulator she had taken earlier, making her fall asleep was as easy as summoning his King to a meal. And he was thankful for it too. After all, had she continued on her way, she would have missed quite a life changing encounter. And most likely certified the end of humanity, but that was just a small extra.

And with a few words and a wave of his staff, Merlin watched as the woman began to doze off, slowly collapsing on the floor. Following that, he shifted his eyes a few hallways away, gazing upon the Beast he had taken care of for a time and the girl it was accompanying. Knowing the critter would notice his touch immediately, he relaxed, enjoying the fact that his active role was over for now.

“Now then,” the Wizard spoke as he fixed his eyes upon the now running Animal and the girl chasing after it. “Let’s see what kind of story you will give life to~”

* * *

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* * *

While this day was supposed to be important, so far, it had the same as any other to her. Waking up, performing her daily check-up, completing any task given to her and finally, what she spent most of her free time doing, gazing at the endless snowfall outside the window. 

Like many other days, Fou, the mysterious animal that just appeared one day at Chaldea, was perched on her shoulder, gazing at the falling snow with her. She would have most likely continued observing the scenery, if it wasn’t for an expected interruption.

“Chaldea to Mash. We have an urgent report for you.”

Noticing the approaching human, Fou quickly hopped off her shoulder, strutting somewhere to her right. Turning around to face the speaker, Mash focused her attention towards the woman standing behind her. Most familiar sight these days, the chestnut haired Doctor in Chaldea’s standard Medical Department Uniform stood there with a tablet on her hand. “Yes? How may I help, Doctor Manesse?” 

“Geez, you’re one attentive kid,” she sighed, shaking her head in a somewhat disapproving manner. Of course, this was nothing new either. “I’ve been working here for…” taking the slightest pause to count, the Doctor sighed once again. “3 and a half years. Ugh. Where does all the time go? Well, back on track. In all the time I’ve worked here, not once have I caught you by surprise despite the fact that you look like you’re daydreaming by that window every single day. You just turn around without any delay, perceptive as ever.”

“Is that… bad?” Mash inquired. She’d grown familiar with the Doctor ever since she had been hired as Roman’s assistant a few years ago. More often than not, it was thanks to her delivering the results of her daily examinations when the Doctor was busy, or more commonly; slacking from work. Yet she never really understood the need for her attempted surprises.

With a rather tired look on her face, Manesse shook her head. “No, no. There’s nothing really wrong with it, it’s just… You know what? Let’s just put this topic aside. I’ve got today’s examination results right here,” the Doctor said, pointing at the tablet on her right hand. “Like you could probably guess, there were no issues. However,” shifting her tone to a more serious one, Manesse looked Mash straight in her eyes. “The Mission today will more than likely be harsh. Should you feel any abnormalities with your body, be sure to inform me immediately.”

“Of course,” Mash nodded. Informing the medical staff when one’s body was impaired was standard procedure, so she wasn’t really sure why she had to specify it. Though one part did catch her attention. “I’m to inform you… Will Doctor Roman not be present?”

Manesse’s expression changed to a somewhat more amused one. “You know how the Director is. She has banned Roman from setting foot at the Command Room during the mission. Apparently his mere presence makes everyone far too lax. Although...” she added, sounding rather annoyed. “I can’t really blame her. He’s off somewhere slacking off again. If you happen to see him, make sure to give him an earful.”

“I will,” Mash nodded. It seemed that the Doctor attempted to skip out on more work every single day. While it was mostly just paperwork, it was still improper for someone of his status.

“Good, that’ll be all then,” the more diligent Doctor said as she turned to leave. Though as Mash was about to turn her attention to Fou, she quickly added: “Oh yeah, Professor Lev is looking for you, so try to meet up with him before the meeting.”

“Yes ma’am,” Mash responded, watching as Manesse disappeared around a corner. Finally getting back to Fou, who had been observing them around a corner. “I suppose I must head to the Command Room soon,” she said as she crouched down next to the small animal. “Is there something you would like to do?”

“Fou,” he barked like usual. The creature seemed to look around for a moment, his ears twitching, but suddenly it’s expression changed. While Mash was far from the most adept person at reading emotions, much less those of animals, but even she could see that her furry friend suddenly appeared extremely annoyed.

“Foulin…” the fluffball growled in a bizarre manner, looking at the opposite direction of where Manesse had left, until suddenly dashing right past Mash, sprinting at full speed through the hallway.

“Fou? Where are you going?” Mash wondered, jogging after it.

Keeping the white critter in her sight while following close behind him, she soon found the destination he had in mind.

A red haired girl she didn’t recognize, sleeping in the middle of the corridor.

* * *

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* * *

“...llo...ke up...pai…”

These scraps of words were the first thing Ritsuka managed to perceive as she felt her consciousness returning, followed closely by something warm on her cheek. 

“...mitäh...? uhh... this is...” she mumbled as she managed to open her eyes despite the overwhelming drowsiness she still felt. Pushing herself off the floor, she could tell she was laying on a hallway or something. But why? Trying to piece together the last few moments, the girl began rerun the last few moments. She had been walking down a corridor, just after she had exited the simulator, until a staggering feeling of fatigue had suddenly overtaking her, causing her to collapse on the floor. Then, just fogginess and… flowers? She’d seen them for just a moment, so maybe she had dreamed them. Through her droopy eyes, she could see she was still in the corridor, but what about…

“Fou!”

Flinching slightly, Ritsuka looked down and noticed a tiny, fluffy creature next to her hand. “Who...?” she mumbled, but soon noticed the strangeness of the creature through her consciousness fully rousing. “(This is not just some normal animal. Is it someone’s familiar?)” she reasoned, trying to analyze the situation, until she remembered the warm feeling on her cheek. Bring her hand to it, she noticed it being just the slightest bit moist. “Did you try to wake me up?” she asked, wishing to see its reaction before making further assumptions.

“Fou,” the creature answered, clearly able to understand her speech.

“(So it’s at least intelligent enough to understand speech… No mage would just let their familiar wonder around like this, so maybe it’s some type of young Phantasmal? Besides, if someone did create it, what would be the point of making it this adorable? No mage working at an organization like this would waste time on that.)” Concluding her evaluation of the fluffball, Ritsuka slowly reached out her right hand towards the creature. “May I?”

“Fou.” the creature ‘barked?’ once again, allowing the redhead to pet it. Immediately, she noticed how remarkably fluffy its coat was.

“Well aren’t you just the fluffiest little thing,” Ritsuka basically cooed, gently petting the creature’s back with a soft smile on her lips. Since it appeared to enjoy it, she moved her fingers to its head. Considering how stressful the last few days had been, something like this was definitely appreciated. “I’m not really sure what to call you, little guy. You kind of look like a mix of a dog and a squirrel, yet somehow even cuter. Do you have a name?”

“Fou. His name is Fou,” a voice answered.

“Aww, because of the little sound he mak-!” Ritsuka nearly jumped when she realized someone had just answered behind her. Quickly turning around to face the speaker, she was fully expecting a researcher, yet...

The most striking features were her hair and the single visible eye, colored faint lilac and bright lavender. She seemed to have an average build, in Ritsuka’s quick estimation a bit less than 20 cm shorter than her. Her clothes, while fairly regular, seemed somewhat out of place in a research facility of this importance. A grey hoodie over a black shirt with a white-collar, a red tie, a black skirt and tights, and brown shoes. If it weren’t for the Chaldea logo on her tie, Ritsuka would have guessed her to be a visitor of some kind.

“Ahem,” coughing to her fist, Ritsuka raised herself to her full height, brushing her tights and skirt in case some dust got on them, put on the most collected expression she could manage and turned to fully face the girl. “Yes, err, thank you for the name... how long were you watching me exactly?”

“I arrived somewhat before you started to stir awake,” she answered, making Ritsuka want to cringe, but she kept her face passive. She couldn’t afford to make herself seem even more inept in front of this girl, since she was most likely a part of the staff here. If she reported her napping on the corridor, her reputation here would sink like a rock despite it being her first day. 

“May I ask why you were sleeping on the floor, Senpai?”

“I...” this was easily the most awkward conversation she’d had in months, possibly years. There was no proper excuse for this, so telling the truth would be the best option she had. And why was this girl calling her ‘Senpai’? She didn’t appear Japanese and she had definitely been at Chaldea longer than she had. “I’m unsure... I remember that I was directed to the simulator right after arriving. Once I exited, I felt extremely drowsy, and apparently passed out here,” she admitted, noticing the critter named Fou wandering off from the corner of her eye.

“I see,” the girl responded, seemingly thinking something. “Based on your uniform, you seem to be a Master Candidate. The Simulator requires a Spiritron Dive for proper access of its systems. If you’re not used to it, the stress to your brain can be quite large. Most likely, your consciousness must have been put into something akin to a sleepwalking state.”

  
“So that was the reason...” Ritsuka muttered, genuinely glad she had found herself an out. The girl seemed to be fairly certain with her reasoning. With this, she could have a plausible excuse for falling asleep on a hallway. Truthfully, she was quite positive that the main cause was the fact that she had not slept properly during the trip to reach Chaldea itself. She had been far too busy trying to absorb every bit of knowledge she would need to know as a Master Candidate during the 3 days she had. The fact that she had basically no time to prepare was overshadowed by the fact that a nobody like her from a mere 3 generation fledgling family had been summoned to an organization run by one of the Lords of Clock Tower. _She_ specifically had been sought out to assist in the preservation of humanity. She had accepted immediately, honestly worrying if the whole thing was a dream before she boarded the plane. She could not let this chance slip sway from her for such a pathetic reason. “Well, I’m thankful for your explanation, and you’re correct, I am one of the Candidates. We haven’t introduced ourselves, right? My name is-”

* * *

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* * *

“Mash!”

Just as the stranger had started to introduce herself, Mash heard a familiar voice calling her name. Turning around, she saw the familiar man in a green top hat and a matching coat heading her way.

“There you are. I’ve told you that wandering around without telling anyone is… Oh?” 

Stopping right beside her, Professor Lev turned his attention to the Master Candidate. “It seems we have a visitor. Are you the rookie who was assigned here today?”

Taking notice of how the woman seemed somewhat more dense now that Lev had appeared, Mash kept her introduction back for now.

“Yes, sir,” she answered quickly, in a somewhat more respectful tone compared to earlier. “I am the 48th Master Candidate. I arrived less than an hour ago.”

“I thought so,” Lev nodded, pulling out a tablet from his coat pocket. With a few clicks, he pulled out her profile. “Let’s see, Number 48… Ritsuka Repo, half Japanese born in Finland January 28th 1997, 3rd Generation Mage from father’s side, Magical Circuit Quality and Quantity: Average. This is all correct, I assume?”

“Yes, sir,” the girl, who she now knew was named Ritsuka, answered. But Mash was somewhat surprised to learn that she was a mage. She was under the impression she was a normal civilian. Certainly, now that she was discussing with Lev her expression was as serious as any mage’s would. She was also quite tall. While northern Europeans were generally on the taller side of the spectrum, Ritsuka was without question the tallest woman she had never met. By her estimation, she was nearly as tall as Roman. Yet, despite these factors, when Mash had first laid eyes on her, when she conversed with Fou, the smile on her face was definitely like that of an honest person. Certainly someone who could qualify to be her Senpai, as how the Doctor had put it.

“Good. I’m Lev Lainur, one of the technicians working here,” Lev said, offering his hand, which Ritsuka shook promptly. “Welcome to Chaldea No. 48, I trust the journey here wasn’t too rough? Our facility is located on a rather desolate spot.”

“No trouble at all, mister Lainur,” Ritsuka nodded, turning her attention back to Mash. “Though I was just about to introduce myself to her, before you showed up. My name is Ritsuka, like you just heard mister Lainur here say. He called you Mash earlier, right? If it’s fine with you, I’d like to know your full name as well,” she said, offering her hand towards her.

“Ah, um, that’s a hard question to answer suddenly,” Mash said, raising her hands somewhat defensively. “Maybe I’m not important enough for you to know my name?”

Lowering her hand somewhat dejected, Ritsuka looked at her rather strangely. “If I don’t know your name, I’m not really sure how to address you properly. Besides, just knowing someone well enough to speak with them like this, is reason enough for me to know their name.”

Her reasoning left Mash somewhat surprised. She had never really had to introduce herself properly, since anyone who knew her did so due to their work. Whether it be doctors or the other members of Team A, they’d know her name before she’d even met them. “Well, yes, your logic is sound, Senpai. But I’ve never really had a chance to use it… I’m afraid I don’t leave a good first impression…”

“Alright...?” Ritsuka nodded, seeming a bit more confused. Though given her personal circumstances, Mash couldn’t really blame her. To most people, someone of her age having never introduced herself would seem strange. “But if you don’t try properly, how would you even know how someone’s first impressions would go?”

Again, solid reasoning. Mash really didn’t know how to respond properly, so she decided to give it a try despite her nervousness. “I-It’s a pleasure to meet you. Umm… I’m Mash Kyrielight. Did I do that right, Senpai?”

“A totally fine introduction,” Ritsuka approved, her lips curling up to a slight smile.

“You two seem rather close. Rather rare for Mash,” Lev noted, wearing his usual smile while scrolling through his tablet. For just a second, Mash noticed Ritsuka looking at her questioningly, until Lev brought her attention back to himself. “Now then, Ritsuka, it seems there’s some material missing from your profile, would you mind if I ask a few questions so that I can fill it in for Chaldea’s database?”

“Certainly, if it’s something I can do, mister Lainur.”

“Just Lev is fine. I’m not too into formalities,” he noted, preparing to fill in an empty section. “Now then, how long was your training?”

As soon as the question was asked, Mash could’ve sworn she saw Ritsuka’s pupils slightly dilate, despite the fact that her face remained calm as ever. “Err… training?”

“Yes, we are missing that from your profile,” Lev confirmed, waiting for her answer. “A year? 6 months? 3 months? Ah, or is it left blank on purpose?” he asked, Ritsuka’s complexion growing the slightest bit paler. “So, you already know how competitive things can get in here? Hiding info from potential rivals is not a bad strategy.”

“Um, no, sir. It’s not that…” Seemingly struggling to come up with words, Ritsuka spoke as truthfully as she could. “Aside from the Simulator visit just after I got here, I’ve not received any proper training…”

“Have you really not had any training at all?” Mash was rather surprised. To bring some like her Senpai here with no training… It would likely be tough for her.

“Oh? Ah, now that I think about it, there was a spot we opened last minute to fill out numbers,” Lev noted, rubbing his chin. “So that’s you then.”

“Fill numbers...?” Ritsuka mumbled, the slightest hints of discontent on her face.

“Now there’s no need to feel down. We will need all of you on this mission.” Lev continued, seemingly trying to lift her spirits. “38 elite mages from notable families, plus 10 talented public applicants. It was only by combining the two that we managed to gather 48 Master Candidates. This is every last person with the aptitude for Rayshifting in the year of 2015. That’s something to rejoice over.”

“I suppose you’re right,” Ritsuka nodded, her mood seemingly improving somewhat. “Considering the rarity for the aptitude, just getting here is almost a miracle.”

“That’s the spirit,” Lev said while patting her on the shoulder. “Now then, we should be heading for the Command room. Unless you have any other questions?”

“Well…” Ritsuka moved her gaze to Mash somewhat hesitantly, clearly contemplating whether or not she should ask something. But in the end she asked her question. “Mash… Why exactly are you calling me Senpai?”

Hearing the question, Mash couldn’t help but feel some heat rising to her cheeks. It was definitely a perfectly valid question, but to answer it...

“You’ve definitely spent a longer time in Chaldea than I have, so shouldn’t our roles technically be reversed in that regard?” she continued, further increasing the validity of it. But before Mash could answer, Lev had managed to jump in.

“Ah, that. Don’t worry about it. To her, every human around your age is her Senpai,” Lev stated, as naturally as anything. He was right of course, but Ritsuka just seemed more confused. “But it is unusual to hear her actually call someone that. I believe this might be the first time. Actually, I’m intrigued as well. Say, Mash, why is she ‘Senpai’?”

“The reason would be-” Truthfully, Mash had just called her that unconsciously when she first laid eyes on her. It wasn’t really that complicated. If she had to put it to words:

“Among the people I’ve met during my life, Ritsuka is most human.”

Letting her reasoning out, Mash couldn’t help but smile. Considering their environment, meeting a person that fulfilled the Doctor’s qualifications of a ‘Senpai’ had almost certainly seemed unfeasible, but from their short interaction, especially between Ritsuka and Fou, Mash felt that she was perfectly qualified for the position.

In response to her words, Lev merely raised an eyebrow. But Ritsuka herself...

For the first time since she raised herself from the floor, her expression significantly changed from the neutral look she held on her face. She seemed genuinely bewildered.

“I don’t feel a single bit threatened by her. Therefore, I have no reason to be hostile.”

For the next second, the corridor was completely silent. Ritsuka appeared completely frozen, her pupils had dilated considerably and her mouth was slightly open. But before Mash could question if she was alright, Lev was the one to break the silence.

“I see, I see, that is important!” he laughed, snapping Ritsuka out of her daze in the process. “People at Chaldea are all a piece of work! I agree with you, Mash. I think you will get along just fine!”

While she wasn’t entirely sure why, Mash felt a sudden warmth in her body. It felt strange that a simple confirmation from another could feel like this, yet it felt gratifying for Lev to give his approval. Though her Senpai had yet to give a response herself, which somewhat concerned her. “Do you find my answer satisfactory, Ritsuka Senpai?”

The girl in front of her seemed rather flustered, a slightest hint of red rising to her cheeks. With a somewhat awkward expression, she started rubbing her neck, avoiding eye contact with Mash while seemingly lost for words. “For someone who I just met to judge me like that… I’m really not sure what to say…”

Yes, Mash could see how she could find that strange from such a short interaction, yet those were her honest feelings on the subject. Seemingly finished forming her thoughts, Ritsuka moved her bright, yellow eyes back to Mash, giving her a small, somewhat bashful smile. “But I suppose I’m… flattered?”

Hearing her response, Mash felt her own smile widen the slightest bit. Hearing it from Lev was one thing, but for her Senpai to accept the term felt… delightful. Mash wasn’t really sure what she would’ve done had she refused the title.

“Although…” Ritsuka suddenly continued, looking at Mash somewhat pleadingly. “I would **really** appreciate it if you could leave out your reasoning if someone asks you again. To be described like that, I would immediately be judged as a complete failure of a mage.”

That was certainly true. Mash herself had not realized Ritsuka was a mage at first, so in a place like Chaldea, having a reputation like that could be especially troublesome. In an organization filled with mages and hardened scientists, being described as a human could even be considered dangerous. Especially when it came to mages. “I understand. I shall keep that part to myself then.”

“Thanks for that,” Ritsuka nodded, seemingly about to continue, yet she was interrupted by a cough from Lev.

“Ahem. As interesting as this exchange is, I believe young Ritsuka here should be heading to the orientation,” Lev noted, looking at his watch. The red head visibly jolted at the last word, her complexion paling considerably from the earlier blush. “No need to worry, you should make it in time as long as you walk briskly.”

“Ah, yes, thank you,” Ritsuka noted as she began looking around moderately nervously. “So, I came from over there, which is where the Simulator is, so to get to the Command Room I should…”

Watching Ritsuka muttering to herself, trying to find the correct path to her destination, Mash proposed her solution. “Professor Lev, do you think they’d allow me to attend the orientation as well? I believe it would be the most efficient way to help her reach the Command Room, since I should head to the area eventually myself.”

“Well, if you’re just going to escort her there, then stand in the corner, they’ll probably let it slide.” Lev stated. “I have other work I must attend to, so I’ll be taking my leave here. Be sure to stay out of the way once you finish escorting her, or the Director’s glares will pierce right through you.”

With those final words, Professor Lev left, leaving Mash alone with Ritsuka. “We should be on our way, Senpai. The Command Room is this way,” she noted, starting to walk the opposite direction from the departing professor.

“Right, thank you,” Ritsuka answered, walking close behind her. Until they reached the elevator, she didn’t say another word, yet once inside. “Is there some reason you’re not supposed to attend the orientation? I understand that you are a member of the staff, but I’m not exactly sure what you do.” 

“I’m part of the advance unit, Team A, which is in charge of this mission,” Mash answered, noticing some surprise from her Senpai. “We’ve already received our own instructions, so there is no need for me to attend.”

“I see…” Ritsuka replied, seemingly thinking about something. For a moment, she focused on the view outside the elevator’s glass walls, keeping quiet in slight awe. Yes, the descent to the Command Center would be rather impressive on the first time. Though Mash had taken the trip more times she could count, so it was perfectly ordinary to her. After a moment, Ritsuka began to speak again. “I suppose we will then head to the Mission together?”

“Once the Rayshift procedure begins, yes,” Mash confirmed, stepping out of the stopped elevator, heading for the Command Room right in front of them.

“I suppose I will be counting on your support during the mission then,” her Senpai noted, catching Mash by surprise. Turning around to face her, somewhat perplexed, Ritsuka looked at Mash questioningly. “What? While you may call me your Senpai when it comes to being a human, you are definitely the more experienced one when it comes to the matters of Chaldea,” she pointed out, before continuing with a smile. “So as I said, I’m counting on you as well.”

“Yes!” Mash nodded, feeling somewhat warm again, returning the smile with her own. The large double doors, more akin to a sealed gate, opened before the two of them. “I, Mash Kyrielight, will do my utmost to support you, Senpai!”

“Thanks,” Ritsuka said as she headed inside. “Well, as long as I don’t somehow screw up and get kicked off the mission.”

Smiling at the final note, Mash followed her in. “The Director may be strict, but I doubt someone as civil as you would get your participation cancelled.”

* * *

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* * *

Was this karma? The Universe itself punishing her for a harmless joke?

Ritsuka felt like she was experiencing a nightmare. However, the still throbbing slap mark on her cheek certified the cruel reality. She had gotten herself banned out of the First Mission, completely annihilating any hopes she had of making a good first impression. This was the absolute worst case scenario, barring her causing some kind of major accident.

“I…” she mumbled to no one in particular, just flabbergasted at the current situation. Here she was, standing outside the Command Room together with Mash. “How did this even happen…?”

“You fell asleep during the orientation, Senpai.” She heard the answer from her right. “It seemed like you were in REM sleep, while standing up no less. A rather amazing feat.”

Ritsuka felt nauseated. She had never had sleeping problems like this, so why now? She honestly didn’t know what to think. In all honesty, she wanted to eat something sweet and then crawl into a hole, but that was hardly an option. “What… what am I supposed to do now?”

“I’m not quite sure,” Mash admitted, placing a finger on her chin. After a few seconds of silence, she came up with something. “I believe it would be for the best if I showed you to your room.”

“Ah...” Ritsuka had to agree, there was no point in loitering in the halls, feeling sorry for herself. It was far better to use a private room for that. “...If you could. Please lead the way, Mash.”

With a nod, the girl began to lead her through the halls, quietly walking ahead. Ritsuka’s consciousness was barely following her surroundings. She just kept droning ahead, following Mash. Normally, she would take note of the path to learn it herself, but she was honestly way too depressed to even bother. She had earned the Director’s ire at the first possible moment. And not just that, she was one of the Lords of the Clock Tower to boot. She had a very real chance to get fired on the first day of her job. How could she even hope to appease the Director? And even if she did somehow manage to keep her spot, what of the other Masters? How would she appear to her peers after such an introduction? Ritsuka couldn’t think of any possible way to revive her butchered reputation. She really needed an out right now. Something, literally anything she could vent her frustration on. Yet she couldn’t come up with anything, just continued walking after Mash. The situation maintained its suffocating atmosphere for several minutes, until the two were interrupted by a familiar sound.

“Fou!”

Just as Mash came to a corner, Fou leaped from around it, landing straight on her face. The situation was sudden and bizarre enough to even knock Ritsuka out of her brooding. “Wha!? Are you alright, Mash?”

“No, no, this is normal. No problem at all!” Mash managed to say as Fou scampered on top of her head, leaving the assaulted girl rubbing her nose. “Fou likes to attack my face, slide around to my back and settle on my shoulder,” she explained as the critter in question did just that.

“I see. Well, if it really is no trouble…” Ritsuka was somewhat skeptical of the whole thing. Those kinds of attacks couldn’t be good for Mash’s classes. “But he seems rather attached to you. What exactly is he?”

“What Fou is?” Mash repeated, seemingly unprepared for her question. “Well, he’s a Privileged Life-Form allowed to freely walk around Chaldea.”

That really didn’t answer Ritsuka’s question, so she tried another approach. “No, I mean specifically **what** he is. He reminds me of something like a squirrel and a dog mixed together. Is he a chimera? Or some type of young Phantasmal?”

“Oh… I’m really not sure,” Mash admitted, catching Ritsuka off guard. “He just kind of showed up one day and has been here ever since.”

“Wait, so you have no idea what he is or where he’s from, yet he’s so attached to you?” The whole situation seemed rather bizarre to Ritsuka. How could an organization like Chaldea have some unknown creature roaming the halls? An absolutely adorable creature for sure, but still a strange one. “I was sure you would have brought him to Chaldea when you first came here yourself.”

Mash’s expression somewhat fell with the last words, making Ritsuka instantly regretful of them. “No, I…” Mash started, making Ritsuka quickly connect the dots. She’d spoken too hastily. “I’ve never left Chaldea.”

“I see, so it was like that after all,” Ritsuka said apologetically. Mash’s situation wasn’t exactly strange in the world of mages, but it didn’t help her own feelings on the matter. “So you were born, and spent your entire life to this point, here?” Ritsuka confirmed, earning a nod from Mash. “I had a feeling when you said you had never met anyone human, and you being part of the A-Team made it more evident. You were prepared your whole life for something like this, weren’t you?”

Mash seemed somewhat surprised at her statement, but was quick to confirm it. “While it is not exact, your hypothesis is quite right, Senpai. I’ve spent my entire life here.”

“I see… Well, Chaldea is ultimately an organization run by mages, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.” Great. This conversation had started to distract her from the disaster earlier, but now she’d brought up a depressing topic for Mash, making her feel even worse. What could she say at this point to change the subject without it seeming desperate?

The answer, once again, came in the form of a leaping critter. 

“Fou!”

Ritsuka barely had time to react as the white fluffball leaped off of Mash’s shoulder towards her. On reflex, she raised her arms to protect her face, but Fou just used them as an extra bounce to reach the top of her head. Like with Mash before, he slid around to her back and settled on her shoulder. From there, he started rubbing his fluffy head on her cheek.

“Oh, uh…” Ritsuka wasn’t really sure what to do. Even Mash looked surprised at this little stunt, and she’d known him far longer. Fou was adorable and his fluff felt really comfortable against her skin, but she really wasn’t used to this kind of direct affection. “Does… he do this often?”

“No,” Mash answered, but her surprise quickly made way to a smile. “I had a feeling when I first saw you two in the corridor. Normally he doesn’t go near anyone aside from me, but he seems to like you, Senpai.”

“Really?” Ritsuka wasn’t quite sure what to make of this. She’d never been this popular with animals before. Sure, she liked them perfectly fine, but she only ever met them by chance. She’d never owned a proper pet. “Well, I’m glad you feel that way, Fou. I think you’re great too.” 

“Fou. Kyuu, Fou! Fou!” the critter barked in response, allowing Ritsuka to scratch under his chin. This really wasn’t what she’d had in mind when she was thinking for something to get rid of her depression, but nothing she could think of could beat this.

“Hmm, hmm. Apparently Fou has embraced you as one of his own, Senpai.” Mash hummed, seemingly happy that the two of them got along so well. “Congratulations. Now you shall be the second caretaker of Fou in Chaldea.”

“I see,” Ritsuka muttered while scratching Fou from behind the ears. “What exactly does he eat?”

Ritsuka had suspected a straightforward answer, yet Mash seemed to grow strangely quiet at her question. After a few seconds of thinking, she finally answered. “He doesn’t really have anything that could be called a diet. Though he is definitely omnivorous. He can eat meat, fruits and even different snacks and sweets.”

“So, basically anything?” Ritsuka wondered, eyeing the critter in question. “Or, more like whatever he wants?”

“Fou. Kyu,” he answered, seemingly confirming her inquiry.

“Well, now that that has been established, I believe I should finish the task I offered you,” Mash said, turning around to walk again. “The rooms for the Master Candidates are right behind this corner.”

And true to Mash’s word, as Ritsuka turned the corner she came to view a long corridor filled with several doors. She could see a few intersections split further down, which made sense, given that they had to have private rooms for 48 people. 

“This is your room, Senpai,” Mash declared, pointing at the door closest to them. “Since you’re the 48th Master Candidate, your room is closests to the intersection here.”

“That at least makes finding it easy,” Ritsuka nodded. Though as she inspected the door, she didn’t see a handle, only a few buttons. Chaldea really liked their sci-fi-esque architecture. “How exactly do the doors work?”

“Well, one of the buttons functions as a doorbell, while the other just opens it, as long as it isn’t locked,” Mash explained, pointing at each of them. “To open a locked door... You were given a Multi-Appliance with your Mystic Code, correct?”

“Multi-Appliance?” Ritsuka wondered. She hadn’t heard about anything like that. Of course, the Mystic Code she was wearing quite an impressive piece of equipment, especially considering they had produced them in such large numbers. But she didn’t remember…

Suddenly it dawned on her. Looking at her left wrist, she remembered the watch she had received with the Mystic Code. She didn’t receive any specific instructions with it, so she assumed it was just an electronic wristwatch, but… “Do you mean this?” she asked as she showed wrist to Mash.

“Yes, exactly,” Mash confirmed as she watched the tiny apparatus. “Were you not informed how it works? Aside from showing time, it functions as a tracker, a communicator, a map and an identification card for opening doors.”

“I never received any instructions for it, not even its name,” Ritsuka grumbled. You’d think she’d be informed of something this important. Although… “A map, huh…” Ritsuka wondered, looking at Mash. Suddenly a smile rose to her lips. “Well, it’s a good thing I didn’t receive instructions, or I may have just navigated Chaldea on my own with a map. If that had happened, I wouldn’t have been able to spend time with you like this.”

Mash opened her mouth slightly, a faintest blush on her cheeks, before she smiled as well. “In that case, I suppose I’m happy too, Senpai.” 

“Thanks for everything, Mash,” Ritsuka said, now in a slightly more serious tone. “You’ve honestly been really helpful for me today, so if you need my help for something in return, don’t hesitate to ask.”

“It’s fine,” Mash replied with a smile that Ritsuka couldn’t describe in any way other than sweet. “If it’s a favor for you, I wouldn’t mind even if it’s treating you to lunch.”

“Well, alright…” Ritsuka mumbled somewhat bashfully. She still had a tough time believing how kind Mash was for someone who had lived their whole life in a magecraft organization. She really had been lucky to meet this girl. Just the thought was enough to make her smile. “But don’t hesitate to ask for help if you need it. Isn’t that basically what a Senpai is for?”

“Yes, I suppose that is true,” Mash admitted before looking at her own wrist. “I should be returning to the control room. I need to start preparing for the first mission.”

“Then don’t let me be the reason you’re late, alright? I’ll see you once the mission is over, I guess.”

“Fou, fouu.” Chiming in himself, Fou also said his goodbyes. At least that’s what Ritsuka assumed.

“Yes, hopefully I’ll be back as soon as the mission is over,” Mash confirmed, then turned her attention to the critter still on Ritsuka’s shoulder. “You take care of Senpai while I’m gone, Fou.” Responding with a bark, Fou took a somewhat more upright position. The fact that Mash had told him to take care of her made Ritsuka somewhat embarrassed, but the critter did seem to know Chaldea’s layout far better than she did, so it wasn’t completely baseless. “Now, then, I’m off,” Mash said, walking towards the crossroad where they came. But before she vanished around the corner, she gave a small wave, which Ritsuka returned. “I’ll see you later, Senpai.”

Seeing Mash disappear around the corner, Ritsuka turned around to face the door panel, bringing Multi-Appliance next to it, which, with a beep, opened the door to her room. “Huh. Even the doors open sideways. Sci-fi-esque indeed.” Though to be fair, in a hallway like this, outward opening doors would be somewhat troublesome. “Guess it’s just the two of us, Fou. I wonder what we coul-”

As soon as Ritsuka entered the room, **her** room to be specific, she came upon a most unexpected sight.

There was a man. A man with pinkish hair, wearing what appeared to be a doctor’s coat, sitting at the table. He had a laptop in front of him, and even with a glance at the screen, Ritsuka could tell it was no work related page he was on. He was just about to pull out what appeared to be strawberry cake out of a container, when he had frozen upon noticing Ritsuka. 

“Who-” the man was about to ask, only to be interrupted by Ritsuka.

“If you give me half, I won’t rat you out.”

For a second, the man seemed to be contemplating for a response, before walking up to her, offering his hand. “Deal.”

“Much appreciated,” Ritsuka agreed, shaking his hand. Honestly, she really wouldn’t have tattled on the guy for skipping work, but the cake looked really tasty, and after the fiasco from earlier, she really needed this. “I’m Ritsuka Repo, 48th Master Candidate.”

“Ah, so you’re the final one,” he sighed, looking somewhat saddened. “I was using this vacant room as my slack off space, but it seems that has come to an end.” Considering the way he worded that, Ritsuka really had to wonder about this guy’s work ethics, but this was a big organization after all. One guy slacking off shouldn’t really cause too much trouble. “I’m Romani Archaman, head of the medical department.”

“Huh?” Did, did she hear that correctly? This guy who was skipping work to watch some Internet Idol while eating cake was… And then she noticed the name tag hanging from his neck, confirming the man’s claim.

“Though everyone just calls me Dr. Roman, so you can relax and call me that too,” he added with a smile. Ritsuka was trying her best to compose her thoughts on this whole matter. Coming to terms with the fact that this guy was essentially responsible for the health of everyone in the facility was impairing her brain like nothing else. “Fact is, Roman has a nice ring to it, no? It sounds cool and vaguely sweet. Oh, do you want some tea with the cake?”

“Ah, yeah, sure…” Ritsuka managed to mumble. She really had to talk a bit more to this Roman guy before allowing him to perform any sort of health inspection on her.

* * *

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* * *

“Is everything ready?” A demanding voice echoed through the command room, one that everyone present was more than familiar with.

“Yes, Director!” one of the many operators within the control room answered, each of them busy making last second calculations. “The A-Team have prepared to enter their coffins, B and below are just about done with their preparations as well! We should be able to begin within a few minutes!”

“Good,” Olga Marie nodded. Aside from that one insolent rookie from earlier, everything was going smoothly, which was honestly refreshing. As long as the Mission itself followed along the same course, the operation could be considered a resounding success. But it was far too early to celebrate, anything could happen within the Singularity.

“No need to be so nervous,” a familiar, most welcome voice called behind her. Olga Marie turned to see Lev, in his familiar green attire, walking towards her. “No mechanical issues anywhere and the Master Candidates are mostly fine too.”

“Mostly? What do you mean mostly?” she demanded. The mission was far too important to rely on a _‘mostly’_. Everything needed to be absolutely perfect. “What is wrong with the Candidates?”

“Nothing major,” Lev explained in his usual, calming tone, putting her somewhat at ease. “Some of the newer ones, who are not quite used to this are showing light abnormalities, most likely due to anxiety. Perhaps I should call Romani for some assistance?”

Hearing the doctor’s name soured her mood even further, but if it would lessen any possible risks, she could bear with it. “Fine, relaxing people is what that dolt does best after all.”

His smile somewhat broadening at her confirmation, Lev raised his wrist, readying his Multi-Appliance. Though right before starting communications, he suddenly stopped. “Now that I think about it, there is one more step we could take to ensure nothing goes wrong.”

“Oh, what do you mean?” Olga asked, surprised by the last minute suggestion.

“Well, just in case something goes wrong with the reactor, we could send _him_ there for some swift adjustments.”

She didn’t even need to ask for a name, just the slightest description was enough to make Olga groan. “Honestly, if it manages to keep him away from the Command Room, I’ll take just about any excuse,” she huffed, honestly glad Lev had brought this up. Romani was far too lax her liking, but _that man_ on the other hand…

“Hah, I’ll go ahead then,” Lev laughed as he opened up the communication, just seeing his name on the screen was enough to frustrate Olga. “Arista, are you there?”

“Yeah. What’s up Lev? Is there some major catastrophe you need me to fix?”

But hearing his voice was so much worse, if she could have spent the rest of her day not hearing him, this was the least she could do. “No, nothing like that. However, just in case something does go wrong, I’d like for you to head to the main reactor. The Rayshift will take a lot of power, so it would be reassuring if you were there to immediately take care of it.” Finishing his request, a silence fell over the line as Lev waited for a response. Olga Marie however, had a bad feeling. After roughly ten seconds of silence, the answer finally came.

“...Are you fucking serious, right now?” And this is what she had been most afraid of.

“I’ve been waiting for this Mission for months, significantly improving the Rayshift procedure, if I may add, and you want me to skip the whole thing? You’re lucky you didn’t ask me in person, ‘cause I would have slapped your Leprechaun looking ass.”

Covering the mic for a second, Lev sighed. Having obviously expected the response. “You don’t have to skip the entire thing. I would just need you there during the Rayshift, after that, you’re free to come here.”

“This whole thing is pointless anyways. I’ve checked every single micrometer, literally, of the reactor three times this week, and it’s Thursday. There’s no way in hell the Rayshift would cause any problems.”

Olga Marie couldn’t bear listening to this nonsense for a second longer. With ire powering her hands, she grabbed Lev’s wrist, surprising him somewhat, and yelled straight to the mic. “Listen here you droll! If I could afford to kick you out, I would, but since I can’t, you better get to the reactor this instant, or I’ll make your stay here hell!”

A silence fell over the Command Room. Even Lev seemed somewhat surprised, but Olga didn’t care. They didn’t have the time to scream to this idiot, so she would do whatever it took to finish the agitation.

“...Hostia puta... Are you for real? You got Olga in on this too?” And now the idiot groaned like he was dying or something! Just before she could unleash her full wrath as a Director, he continued. “Fuck it, you win. I can’t deal with her when she’s like this unless I’m drunk. I’m at the cafeteria, grabbing myself some snacks for the show, so I should get there in roughly a minute.”

Ignoring the outrageous reasoning in favor of the result, Olga huffed, releasing Lev’s wrist and walking away. At least she wouldn’t have to deal with him any longer. Though she had to wonder about that last part. It would normally take almost four minutes, even by running, to get to the reactor from the cafeteria. Well, this idiot could probably do it without an issue. No sense in dwelling in it.

“But,” he continued, just as Olga thought they were through. “In the fraction of the second the Rayshift is over, I’m rushing there like a bullet train. No way in hell I’m missing the Servant summoning.”

“Yes, that’s fine,” Lev assured, though he looked somewhat tired as well. “But please use the elevator this time. When you were last in a hurry, you almost gave some of the technicians a heart attack when you just landed right next to them.”

“No promises, but I’ll make sure no one is close when I land.”

“I suppose that is all we can ask of you,” he sighed, while Olga was somewhat glad someone else could suffer like her when talking to this man. She just wished it hadn’t been Lev. “Olga really appreciates you doing this.”

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll see you later. Lame botas...” And with that, he was finally gone. Olga Marie wished she could’ve been happier, but the headache she had gotten certainly ruined any feeling of accomplishment.

“Now, then… I’ll call Romani in a minute, after I’ve taken a bit of a breather,” Lev noted, walking towards the door. “I hope you don’t mind too much?”

“No, no. After actually getting him to go to the reactor, you’ve earned a break, Lev.” She could really use one too, but this close to the start of the mission, she couldn’t afford to. “Let’s just hope nothing goes wrong at this point.”

“Trust me, Olga. Once Romani gets here, everything will go absolutely perfectly.” And with that he left the room. Though for some reason, one that Olga Marie couldn’t quite figure out, Lev’s smile had never seemed broader.

* * *

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* * *

“I see, so you were also a victim of the director’s ire and got chased out,” Romani concluded after taking a sip of his tea.

“Yeah...” Ire was an oddly fitting word, given the director’s reaction. She certainly seemed like a temperamental woman. Though given that she’s the director of such an important organization she must have been under considerable stress. But still. She gave a few pats to Fou laying on her lap, yet did very little to make Ritsuka feel better. “I really have to wonder if she’s going to straight up fire me after the mission is over...”

“Nah, I doubt she’ll go that far,” Romani surmised shockingly easily, eating another forkful of his cake. Ritsuka had come to understand him a bit better after talking for a while. And while she could see he was ultimately a well-meaning person, she really couldn’t concur with his lax nature. “There are only so many people capable of Rayshifting. Director Olga Marie might be harsh, but she’s still a mage, she won’t throw away valuable assets.”

That… was a good point actually. Considering that the entire world only had about 48 of them, Rayshift capable individuals were extremely rare. It didn’t help to fix her reputation, but it was something. “I suppose that’s true enough. Thanks, Dr Roman.” Feeling her mood improving somewhat, Ritsuka picked up one of the strawberries on her cake and popped it to her mouth. Though as she did, she noticed the critter on her lap looking at her quite intently. “All right, here you go.” Picking up the other one, she brought it to Fou’s snout where he quickly devoured it eagerly. “So my guess on your diet was spot on, huh?”

“Fou!” he answered, settling back on her lap. He really was quite adorable. Ritsuka was glad that the two people she first got to know in Chaldea were both such cuties.

“You know, Mash has told me a lot about the mysterious creature, but this is the first time I’ve actually seen him,” Roman noted, eyeing the fluffball on her lap. “For a while I really didn’t think he existed.”

“He is an elusive little guy.” So even Romani had seen Fou before. That made Ritsuka really wonder how he’d even gotten to Chaldea. Perhaps he could turn invisible or something? He certainly seemed to be more than what he looked, given how he clearly understood human speech.

“You know, why don’t I teach him some tricks?” Romani suddenly suggested. Taking out a tiny chunk of cake that looked like it had fallen off from one of their pieces out of the container he brought the cake with, he slowly leaned over the table to reach Fou. Ritsuka could already guess how this would end, but decided to refrain from saying anything. She really wanted to see how exactly her little friend would react. “Shake. If you can do it, I’ll give you a treat.”

“...Fou.” Ritsuka wouldn’t exactly call herself an expert when it came to animals, but even she could see that Fou gave Romani a truly pitying look before ignoring him completely.

“Huh, what?” The Doctor himself seemed rather surprised at the action, falling back to his seat with a dejected expression. “What’s with that look, like you’re looking at something really pathetic...”

“Maybe Fou just doesn’t care for men?” Ritsuka surmised, honestly trying to comfort the poor guy rather than being serious. “With someone as cute as Mash as his caretaker, his standards must be pretty high.”

“Fou.” sounding like he agreed, Fou proceeded to fully lay down, seemingly starting to nap.

“Yeah, that must be it,” Roman nodded, seemingly trying to make himself feel better by eating more of his cake. After washing it down with some tea, his expression suddenly turned somewhat sincere. “So, you mentioned that Mash was the one to escort you through Chaldea, right?”

“Yes, that’s right,” Ritsuka confirmed, not really sure what to think about the doctor’s change of tone. “She’s been unbelievably helpful towards someone she just met. It’s honestly hard to believe someone that sincere lives in an organization run by mages.” Romani’s expression softened back up upon hearing her words, seemingly happy with what he heard. Just as he was taking another sip of his tea, Ritsuka continued. “Though with her personality, I’m a bit worried someone might try to take advantage of her. She even called me her Senpai after speaking just a few sentences with-”

“Ufugghh!”

Before she could even finish her sentence, Ritsuka was interrupted by a coughing fit from the Doctor. It had been so sudden that Fou, who was thoroughly enjoying his nap on her thighs, jolted up and hopped to the floor. Getting over the surprise, Ritsuka got off her seat and gave the doctor a few good smacks on the back. “Are you okay? Did the tea you drank go down the wrong way?”

After a few more coughs, Roman seemed to be fine enough to speak. “*cough* Yeah, talk about embarrassing. The head of the medical department almost chokes on his tea while a rookie to the organization helps him get over it on her first day.” Laughing a bit over his own flub, Ritsuka couldn’t help but let out a tiny snicker herself. He definitely had a point.

But while she did find it a bit funny, she couldn’t help but notice how much the doctor seemed to react when the subject turned to Mash. Perhaps he and Mash were close? Considering how Mash had mentioned never leaving Chaldea, it made sense that they would at least know each other. And since Mash seemed to have some importance here, they would need someone to monitor her health regularly. And as the head of the medical department, Roman would be in the prime position for that role. Though she still couldn’t get used to someone so lax having so much responsibility.

While she was a bit curious over the subject, she decided against asking about it. After all, she still barely knew these people. Who was she to snoop about their relationships like that? “Well, as long as you’re no longer dying.”

“Geez, I’m really not giving a good first impression of myself, am I? It’s no-”

BEEP! BE BEEP BEE!

Romani was suddenly interrupted by a ringing coming from his Multi-Appliance, cutting his sentence short. “Oh, it’s Lev. The Rayshift should be starting soon. Wonder what’s going on?”

“Romani, we're going to start the Rayshift soon. Could you come over to give us a hand?” A voice familiar to Ritsuka spoke through the wrist gadget, though compared to earlier, his tone seemed more serious. “The A Team's in perfect condition, but B Team on down is less experienced and they are displaying some slight abnormalities. It probably comes from anxiety. The inside of that Coffin is like a cockpit.”

“My, that’s unfortunate,” Romani replied, seemingly resisting the temptation to finish his cake while talking. “Why don't I come to give them some anesthesia?”

“Yes, be quick. If you're in the infirmary, then you can get here in two minutes.” BEEP!

Ending the communication with a beep, Romani turned towards Ritsuka, his face a textbook example of nervousness. “What should I do… It’ll take five minutes from here, no matter what…”

“Maybe find a slack off space that’s closer to your office next time.” While Ritsuka did feel the slightest bit bad for him, Romani had dug his way into this, so he’d have to face the consequences. Though he did offer her tea and cake, so she could at least help him out a bit. Standing up, Ritsuka picked up the now empty tea cups as well as the plates and forks they had used to eat the cake. “You can get going Dr. Roman. I can take care of these, and you’ll need every last second if you’re trying to get to Lev even in double the time he asked.”

The doctor’s expression brightened up substantially from her words. “Really? Oh, man did I get lucky to get myself a friend like this!” Listening him cheer like this made Ritsuka think more of a middle schooler than someone… maybe in their late twenties? but it was refreshing in it’s own way. “Once you get settled ms. Repo, come to the Doctor’s office sometime. I’ve got all kinds of treats hidden in there.”

“You’ll lose that lean physique of yours in no time if you keep eating like that, while having a desk job,” Ritsuka jabbed, earning a slight frown from the doctor. She could really appreciate a source of sweets, but living in a research facility like this didn’t leave too many options for exercise. Aside from her ability to Rayshift, her physical prowess was her only redeeming quality as a Master Candidate, so she couldn’t afford it to falter even a bit. Though if she remembered right, there was something like a gym here. “Oh, and by the way, as long as it’s not in any official business, you might as well call me Ritsuka. I’m already calling you by a nickname technically.”

“Oh, well I guess that’s fair,” Romani noted while quickly clicking something on his laptop. With one final click, he shut it off, folded it and picked it off the table.

“You really should get going by now. But, it was nice to meet you Dr. Roman.”

“Yeah, it wa-”

**CLICK**

Suddenly, with no forewarning, the lights of the room shut off leaving the two of them in complete darkness. Immediately Ritsuka's body tensed, placing the dishes she had picked up back on the table. How could a research facility of this caliber suddenly get a power outage? Especially at a time like this.

"Huh, what's this?" Romani asked, sounding genuinely more surprised than shocked. Ritsuka wasn't entirely sure if that attitude of his was good or bad in a situation like this. "The lights went out all of a sudden. Did something-"

**_RRRRRUMBLLLE_ **

A shock wave shook the entire room at once. Ritsuka quickly grabbed on to the table that had been bolted on the wall, trying to keep her balance. While she couldn't see them, she heard Romani's startled cry from her front and a yelp from Fou somewhere behind her.

As soon as the shaking ended, red emergency lights lit up the room, followed by a loud alarm blaring at her ears. In the crimson colored room, she saw Roman by the bed, leaning at it for support, his expression having turned genuinely startled. Turning her head, Ritsuka spotted Fou behind her. The poor critter was doing his best covering his large ears. If the alarm was loud to her, she couldn't imagine how torturous it was for Fou.

And then, an announcement rang from the intercom: [ _Emergency. Emergency. A fire has broken out in the Central Power Station and the Central Command Room. Central Area's containment wall will activate in 90 seconds. All staff must evacuate from Gate 2 at once._ ]

"Was that an explosion just now? What on earth is happening?" Romani yelled, hopping over the bed to reach the monitor at the back of the room. Not wanting to fall out of the loop, Ritsuka quickly moved beside him. "Monitor, show us the Command Room! Is everybody all right?" Considering the force of the explosion, Ritsuka already had a bad feeling. However, when the monitor showed footage of the Command Room, her heart sank.

The Command Room, or what was left of it, looked like it had been a victim of carpet bombing. Aside from Chaldeas, which continued to float in its place, basically everything had been completely destroyed. Large chunks of the wall had crumbled and fallen on the floor, several coffins could be seen out of place, clearly having been flung about by the explosion. And the fire. The edges of the area looked like a sea of flames. A raging inferno that would burn a person to death near instantly.

"Ei vittu…" Ritsuka hadn't meant to swear out loud, but she couldn't help but let the words slip out upon seeing the devastation. She didn't know what to do. What could she do? Should she try to evacuate and let the professionals take care of things? But having witnessed the state of the room, she couldn't just do nothing, damn it! This might've been her first day here, but she had signed a contract for employment. The mere thought of sitting around while something this awful was going on made her sick. Even if it was something as simple as carrying supplies, she had to at least do something. "Doctor! What should we-"

Ritsuka cut herself short from sheer shock upon seeing Roman's face. The normally lax doctor had covered his mouth with his hand, shaking somewhat, but his eyes told more than his lips ever could. No hint of the earlier jovial glint in his eye remained, they were focused, yet horrified. But, the fear was quickly brushed away by sheer determination as he closed the monitor. “Ritsuka, evacuate right now. I'm going to the Command Room,” the doctor stated in an almost frighteningly composed tone. “The containment wall is about to close. Get yourself out before it's too late!”

And with those words, the doctor ran out of the room, sprinting towards the disaster site. “...Evacuate. That’s what he told me to do, but…” Ritsuka didn’t really know what to think. Judging from Romani’s serious expression, she should probably do what he said. Racking her brain for a proper course, Ritsuka thought back through the day's events. There had to be something to help her…

(“ _hopefully I’ll be back as soon as the mission is over_ ”)

(“ _I’ll see you later, Senpai._ ”)

Ritsuka looked down at her feet, right at the fluffy creature sitting there. Fou met her gaze evenly, looking at her as if waiting for a decision.

So she gave him an answer. “Come on, buddy,” she confirmed, lowering her arm to let him hop on her. “Let’s go make sure Mash gets through this.”

“Fou!” the critter howled, hopping on her shoulder as Ritsuka sprinted out of the room. She began to immediately open the map on her Multi-Appliance, wanting to make sure she wouldn’t waste time on a wrong turn. She really should have left with Romani. He would know the best course without question, but she had wasted about 30 seconds pondering, so she wasn’t sure if she could catch him in time.

But…

About 4 minutes into her run, Ritsuka spotted the hem of a familiar doctor’s coat disappearing around a corner as she ran along the hallway. Sprinting around said corner, she saw Roman running about halfway through the corridor. “Doctor!” she called out, causing him to flinch slightly, his running slowing to a crawl as he turned around to face her.

“Wait, what are you-”

“Don’t stop!” Ritsuka intercepted, shocking the Doctor a bit, but he did as she asked and continued running. That slight stop had been enough for Ritsuka to reduce the distance between them to a few meters.

“Why are you here?” Romani asked over his shoulder. “I told you to-”

“I know!” Ritsuka yelled, interrupting the Doctor once again. Sprinting to his side, she slowed down slightly to keep pace with him. Making sure to keep her face absolutely composed, she turned to face him. “But I can’t just stand around fiddling my thumbs while all hell breaks loose! You know that you need all the help you can get down there, so don’t try to argue with me!” Romani seemed unsure how to respond, looking at her somewhat hesitantly. Not that she could blame him. She was just some girl who had just arrived, who for some reason was running full sprint towards a disaster zone. And yes, while she definitely wanted to help out regardless, there was a more distinct reason for her to do this. “And… after everything that happened today, I want to make sure that Mash survives this…”

At the last part of her explanation, Romani’s eyes noticeably widened. Though just as quickly, they refocused, facing back forward. “Alright,” he sighed, seemingly accepting her reasoning. “I really can’t turn you away after that.”

“Thank you.” Ritsuka really didn’t know what to say beside that, so she continued running with him as sirens blared around them.

“I don’t exactly dislike that sort of motivation,” Romani admitted, taking a sharp turn to another corridor. Though when Ritsuka looked at him again, he wore a somewhat disconcerted expression. “Also… you’re a really fast runner. It’s honestly making me feel really inadequate…”

The reluctant concession at such an unfitting time caught her so off guard that she almost let her expression slip. “I… I see,” Ritsuka muttered, honestly not sure if a proper response even existed. “Less cake. More actual work.” And as soon as the words left her mouth, she started kicking herself in her head.

* * *

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* * *

The Command Room looked just as bad in person as it had on the monitor. No, it was even worse, since they could see more than what the limited camera showed. Ritsuka could see a few bodies on the edges of the room. Judging from their clothes, operators, blown away by an explosion. Doing her best to keep her nausea in check, she turned to Romani who was looking over the room. “How did something like this happen? There’s no way a malfunction could cause something on this level, right?”

“That’s right…” Roman affirmed her question, turning to look at Chaldeas. “The explosion originated here in the Command Room, but nothing here could generate that kind of force. This was no accident, it was sabotage.”

That had been a slight possibility in her mind, but Ritsuka really wished that hadn’t been the case. Not only did it mean that the culprit was more than likely still around, waiting somewhere, but their motive for doing this was something she couldn’t even begin to comprehend. “Why… why would someone do something like this? Chaldea is a nonprofit organization and it’s not even an establishment primarily trying to reach the Root. I can’t figure out a single motive to try to destroy it like this.” 

“I’m uncertain as well,” the doctor admitted, much to Ritsuka’s unease. She had hoped that he would know something she did not, an incentive for this devastation, but there was nothing. A reason for doing something… that’s what she had always believed was necessary for any action. A drive, a goal, hoping to acquire something. But this… For someone to do this for seemingly no reason… It absolutely terrified her.

[ _Power level critical. Switching to the backup generator. Error. Please make the switch manually._ ]

Clicking through his Multi-Appliance, Romani wore a pained expression on his face. “There’s not enough power being generated… Sorry, but I'm heading down to the underground power station. We can't let Chaldeas’ light go out...” For a second, he seemed hesitant, looking straight at Ritsuka with a concerned look in his eyes. “What will you do?”

To be perfectly honest, Ritsuka had nothing that would qualify as a plan in her mind. She didn’t possess any type of magecraft that could be used for either locating or healing people. The little she had was only really useful for keeping herself away from danger. _Maybe_ to fight as a last resort, but that was something she really wanted to avoid. Against any proper and/or competent magus, the best she could hope for was a sneak attack to take them out.

There was no point in lying to the doctor, so she answered as honestly as she could. “I’m going to try to find Mash from this… hellscape. It might seem unlikely, but there’s always the tiniest of chances in situations like these. And if possible, I’ll try to help anyone else I might find.” Romani seemed unsure what to say. Most likely he was thinking of a proper response. But before he could say anything, Ritsuka continued. “Don’t worry. I have no intention of dying carelessly doing something stupid. I’m _well_ aware of my own limits.”

That seemed to make Romani calm down the slightest bit, though his gaze remained slightly sceptical. “All right. I really don’t have time to argue or try to stop you. Just… don’t get yourself killed. Too many have already.” With those final words, the doctor ran off, heading for the backup generator.

Ritsuka on the other hand, focused her sights on the ruins. Strengthening her eyes, she could see somewhat better through the smoke and obscuring shadows created by the dancing flames. She could see some coffins in the rubble, their windows cracked from the sudden heat and force. How could she hope to find Mash through all this? Should she try checking any coffin she came across? But considering that plenty of them had been buried, she woul-

“Fou!”

Hearing the familiar call, Ritsuka turned to see Fou standing on a small hill formed by the debris, seemingly waiting for her. Could he actually find Mash through all this? Then again, he wasn’t exactly a normal animal, so who knew what he was really capable of. And considering he seemed at least somewhat intelligent, it wasn’t likely a game or anything. So, with no better options in mind, Ritsuka chose to trust the critter. “Alright, Fou. You lead the way then.”

“Fou!” Crying out once again, the fluffball bolted through the debris, with Ritsuka following close behind.

* * *

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* * *

Cold.

Despite the brightly burning flames all around her, that was all she could feel. Her body steadily growing colder.

Still, given her situation, it was hardly strange. A large chunk of concrete had fallen on top of her, breaking her spine and crushing her organs. She could feel blood pooling around her. Her own blood, even it felt cold now.

So, this was it. This was ‘ _death_ ’.

She could feel herself falling into nothingness. The darkness blotting away at her consciousness. It told her- there was nothing she could do.

And it was right. She had known that someday, this time would come. From the moment she had become self aware, she had known death would claim her one day. It was slightly earlier than it was supposed to, but in the end, it didn’t matter that much.

In the end, she would still disappear alone in-

“Mash!”

The sudden call snapped her back to reality. Turning her head to face forward, Mash saw Fou a few meters in front of her. Just sitting there, waiting.

Behind him, a mane of reddish orange rose from atop a pile of debris. Within this sea of flames, the familiar hair seemed to glisten incomparably to the earlier corridor. Next were the eyes. They had seemed so calming in their yellow color, yet now, they gleamed like sparks as their owner made her way towards her.

“Mash! Are yo-” She stopped almost instantly. Her eyes that had just been so sharp began to waver as she looked right at her. No words were needed, Mash knew she had immediately grasped her condition. Realized there was no saving her.

“...Yes, it’s helpful that you’re so quick to understand…” Mash uttered. It was getting difficult to talk. But, since Ritsuka clearly understood, she didn’t need to say much. “...so, ms. Repo, you need to hurry, and escape…”

She could see that the girl in front of her was frustrated. Looking over the immediate area around her. Perhaps she looked for someone else, who might still survive.

She turned back towards her, clearly about to say something. But before she could say anything, a new source of light appeared, along with a voice.

* * *

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* * *

There was nothing.

There was absolutely nothing she could do. The debris that had fallen on Mash was too large for her to move. If it was half the size, she could most likely move it with a full body strengthening, but this much…

Her thoughts turned to her Mystic Code, recalling it having a healing function. But just as quickly, she remembered that the healing spell, while quite potent, was catered for the bodies of Servants, making it effectively worthless on normal people. She had read that Chaldea also had Healing Scrolls for regular people, but she obviously had none.

Looking around the immediate area, she hoped to find something, perhaps a long piece of metal, anything she could use to make a simple lever. But again, nothing…

_Worthless_

That was the only word that came to mind. She came all the way here, perhaps giving Mash the slightest bit hope for survival, but she was, once again, completely worthless, incapable of doing anything meaningful. Ritsuka bit her teeth together in frustration. The force was nearly great enough to crack her molars, and then-

[ _Warning all observation staff. Chaldeas' state has changed. Now rewriting Sheba's near-future prediction data._ ]

Hearing the sudden announcement Ritsuka, along with Mash, turned to look at the sphere floating in the middle of the room. No longer the brilliant blue that it had been when Ritsuka saw it first, it was now a ball of flame. It was as if the sphere had taken the condition of the room they were currently in and applied the same to the entire world.

[ _Unable to detect the existence of mankind 100 years in the near-future on Earth. Unable to confirm human survivors. Unable to guarantee mankind’s future._ ]

Each word struck Ritsuka with the weight of a truck. This… Was what was currently happening here linked to mankind’s destruction? It was too much. Far too much at once. First Mash and now this? It was like her mind was crumbling trying to process everything around her.

“Chaldeas...has turned bright red…” Mash uttered, pulling Ritsuka back to reality, She was seemingly in pain with each word said. Considering her condition it was a miracle she could talk at all. Yet she continued. “No, never mind, that——”

**CLONK**

Hearing the heavy metallic sounds behind her, Ritsuka turned to look at the direction she came. Just in time to see the large doors slamming shut. A great number of locks sealing them off. She would not be able to get out.

[ _Central Area, sealed. 180 seconds till internal containment procedure._ ]

“...the bulkheads have, already closed…” Mash gasped breathlessly. Ritsuka wanted to beg her to stop talking, but these would more than likely be her last words. As much as she hated it, she couldn’t just tell her to be quiet. “...we can’t, get out, anymore… I’m sorry… because of me, you...”

Even now. Even now while she laid on the floor dying, her own blood pooling around her, Mash still worried about Ritsuka. It was just so sad that it made her want to cry. Ritsuka couldn’t even remember the last time she properly cried, yet this was close to taking her over the edge. But thinking of Mash, she did the one thing she could to make her feel just slightest bit better. She turned to face Mash, smiling as best she could. She was sure it looked awkward, seeing how she had practiced for years to keep her face as calm and neutral as possible. Smiling was a whole other category. But now, this was all she was worth. “You don’t need to worry. Even if I had made it in time, I wouldn’t have left.”

Mash seemed genuinely surprised by her words. Enough to tell through the tired expression she had on her face. “...but why? ...we only, just met, some hours ago… why would you?”

It was a fair question. Even though Mash had seen her unguarded in the corridor, she was still a mage. The reason would be completely nonsensical to any proper mage. But Ritsuka had always been perfectly aware, as had been noted when she first met Mash, that her disposition made her a complete failure of a mage. Yet still, she couldn’t give any other answer than what she felt in her heart, so she spoke, more genuinely than she had in a long time.

* * *

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* * *

“ _Leaving you to die here all alone would be far too sad for me to bear_ _._ ”

...she couldn’t say anything.

No, it would be more accurate to say that she couldn’t think of any way to respond to her words.

Mash could only watch as Ritsuka, wearing a somewhat sad smile on her face, sat right next to her. “So, you don’t need to worry. I’ll be here with you, no matter what happens.”

[ _Coffin Vitals: Masters Baseline not reached._ ]

Mash could barely hear the Announcement, her every fading sense focusing solely on the girl sitting next to her. The orange hair flowing gently from the air shifted by the flames, the yellow eyes shining in the gloomy lighting, the smile that was both warm, yet so so sad. In the face of it all, a single desire found its way to Mash’s mind. One that she was embarrassed by, yet she wanted to ask all the same.

[ _Rayshift requirement not met. Searching for qualifying Master... Found. Candidate No. 48, Ritsuka Repo reset as Master._ ]

“...Um...Sen...pai?” she uttered, gasping for breath between each word. Speaking was getting so difficult. The few words seemed to completely drain her, yet she was not finished.

“...yes?” Ritsuka asked, her voice so remarkably gentle and kind. More so than any Mash had ever heard.

[ _Unsummon Program, start. Spiritron Conversion, start._ ]

“my… hand…” she gasped, knowing just a few more words were all she could manage. “...could ...you hold ...my hand…?”

Ritsuka’s expression shifted slightly, her eyebrows rising, and the sad smile on her lips lost a bit of its sadness, being replaced by a sudden warmth. “Of course,” she answered, wrapping Mash’s hand with both of hers.

[ _Rayshift starting in 3_ ]

Despite the cold creeping throughout her body, the hands, her Senpai’s hands, slightly larger than her own, felt incomparably warm to Mash. Yet they belied the warm smile on her face, revealing their owner’s sadness as they lightly shook.

[ _2_ ]

But it was fine. The fact that she had done it at all was enough for Mash.

[ _1_ ]

With this, she could finally-

[ _All procedures clear. First Order, commencing operation._ ]

* * *

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* * *

For the shortest time imaginable, all she saw was darkness. She could neither feel nor move her body, making it impossible to even ascertain her own existence.

Then, a whirlpool of light, glowing pale blue sucked her in. At the end of it, she saw only darkness, like a black hole, completely devoid of light.

And yet, as she got closer, a light brighter than the whirlpool itself pierced the black sphere, robbing her from seeing anything else.

And then, Ritsuka landed on her feet, her thoughts in complete disarray.

At first, she wasn’t sure what to think. She was still standing on crumbled concrete, flames burning around her like before. But as she looked around, she immediately realized that her whereabouts had completely changed. Instead of the walls of the Command Room, what she saw were the remnants of regular buildings, left in a state of utter destruction. Instead of the roof, she could see the sky above her head. Granted, it was covered in a layer of frighteningly thick clouds, but it was not a roof at the very least.

“What just… wait. Mash!” Realizing the girl she was just with was nowhere to be found, Ritsuka began to look around frantically. They were just next to each other. Hell they were holding hands. If she had somehow moved here, Mash should have been close by too. Yet she couldn’t find anything to-

“Fou!”

Nearly jumping from the sudden call, Ritsuka looked at her feet to find a familiar companion there. A slight feeling of optimism rose inside Ritsuka. It seemed that Fou had at least come with her, so perhaps Mash was close as well. “So you got caught up in this too, buddy? Can that nose of yours find Mash?” 

“Kyuu…” The critter’s answer seemed somewhat solemn, its ears drooping, dropping Ritsuka’s optimism back to rock bottom. Yet, just as she was about to move to search around the area, Fou’s ears perked back up. Turning to look right behind Ritsuka, he let out an alarmed bark. “FOOUU!”

“What is it? Did you fiaaaaahh?!?” The redhead had precious few milliseconds to react as an assailant rushed towards her. Jumping back as she saw it recklessly swing something towards her, Ritsuka barely avoided a sharp blade from slicing her torso and managed to properly see the attacker. It was a skeleton. An honest to god skeleton wearing ragged robes and swinging a sword around. Ritsuka was so dumbfounded that she nearly stopped moving back, close to getting hit by more of its wild swings.

An unknown location she had appeared in all of a sudden. Fire and destruction everywhere. And now, an undead soldier attacking her. As stupid as it seemed, Ritsuka couldn’t help but blurt out:

“Is- is this hell?”

“Grrraaahh!!!”

The scream from the skeleton focused her attention back to what was important. She didn’t have time to worry about where she was as long as this thing was attacking her. Dodging another swing from it, Ritsuka fired up her magical circuits, strengthened her legs and kicked it right on the chest. In response, the skeleton was flung back about a meter and fell over. The result wasn’t optimal, but far from awful.

As the skeleton scrambled to get back up, Ritsuka collected her thoughts. It was clearly more durable than a regular human, it wouldn’t even be able to move properly otherwise. If it had been as tough as a normal skeleton, taking into consideration the lack of flesh and muscle, her kick should have shattered its ribs. Yet she could just barely see the slightest of cracks on it. But, that was also good. It meant she could actually damage it. And from its rash swings, she could guess that the skeleton didn’t really know how to fight. It seemed to just rush at her, slicing around without consideration.

This was doable. Had it been something stronger, faster or smarter, she could have been in real trouble. But winning against this skeleton. It was definitely something that wasn't beyond her.

Ritsuka began looking around the immediate area, hoping to find something to use as a makeshift weapon while making sure to keep the skeleton within her peripheral. She noticed Fou to her right, having taken a spot on top of some rubble. Since the skeleton didn’t really seem to care about him and Fou himself being smart enough to stay out of danger, she focused her attention elsewhere. Then she spotted it, a severed traffic sign on the ground. Good news, aside from the shaft being fractured, the rest of it seemed perfectly intact. With something that heavy, she could definitely do some damage to the skeleton. Bad news, the skeleton was effectively between her and the sign. She would have to pass it.

“Grrraaahh!!!”

The skeleton charged again, taking hold of its sword with both hands and raising it above its head. In essence, it was the most obvious overhead swing imaginable. Just as it began its swing, Ritsuka quickly sidestepped to the left, letting the skeleton swing its sword down, nearly falling over in the process. Before it could recover, Ritsuka used the momentum from her dodge to land a wheel kick on its pelvis, knocking the pile of bones over again. Not wasting time, she dashed to the traffic sign, strengthening her arms in addition to her legs as she picked it up. Looking over it quickly, it was in a rather good condition given the circumstances. Just a normal, round Turn left sign, now used to decapitate a walking skeleton soldier. This was definitely… a thing... that was happening.

Putting the absurdity of the situation aside as the skeleton stood back up, Ritsuka began to strengthen the sign in addition to her limbs. While the shaft was made of steel, so there was no trouble with durability there, the sign itself was the problem. She remembered hearing that they were mostly made of aluminium to avoid weather damage. She couldn’t afford for it to break before she put this bone man down. Feeling the magical energy flowing through her hands into the pole, Ritsuka watched as light blue lines ran across its surface. Just as the skeleton began its charge, Ritsuka finished the strengthening, taking hold of the lowest possible point of the shaft and holding it over her shoulder. The trajectory of her swing was painfully obvious, it felt like she was holding a really long baseball bat. Against anything remotely intelligent, this would be the worst way to utilize a long weapon. Thankfully, this skeleton wasn’t.

Just as it entered the minimum range required to hit, Ritsuka began the swing, twisting her waist to add every bit of centrifugal force possible to her attack. Her target obvious, the neck. It was already a weak point for normal humans, but with the flesh and muscle gone, snapping it would be far easier. And with a wide, swinging arc, the sign connected with the skeleton's cervix, shattering it like plastic. Almost instantly, it fell over, turning back to simple bones as its dismembered skull rolled away. Ritsuka nearly lost her balance at the end, thankful she had kept her legs strengthened. With the force of the swing combined with the length of the sign, she would have almost certainly tumbled without it.

“Whew... Okay, that was… wow,” she puffed, really wanting to take a breather to calm herself down. Looking around, she didn’t see any other possible aggressors, only Fou now trotting towards her. “Hey, buddy. You mind keeping an ear out for any more of these guys while I take a little break to collect my thoughts?”

“Fou, fou fou kyu,” Fou answered enthusiastically. That seemed like an agreement, she hoped. Sitting on a large block of concrete, Ritsuka began to rack her brain through everything that had happened.

First, she was now somewhere other than Chaldea, that much was obvious. The only possible explanation would be that the Rayshift had activated, and she was now in Singularity F. She had thought the coffins would be mandatory for a successful Rayshift, but apparently that wasn’t the case. Clearly her understanding of Chaldea’s workings were still lacking. From what little she remembered from the orientation, the singularity was apparently somewhere in Japan during the last decade. Her lack of knowledge on that part only made her more irritated. How the hell did she fall asleep while standing anyways? Whatever, that covered the where. Next, the skeleton thing. Considering this was a singularity, expecting something bizarre might be sensible. If she had to guess, judging from her immediate area, some jackass mage had gone way overboard with their experiment and fucked up a whole city. That would explain the undead, though the fact that it was just bones instead of an actual corpse was strange. And where the hell did it get a sword? That was the strangest part of the whole encounter. For her plan of action, getting an idea of her surroundings and holing up in a safe spot would be the sensible option. Since she had her Multi-Appliance, someone from Chaldea would eventually contact her, helping her to a safer area. Moving around should definitely be avoided. She had no idea how many of these skeleton things were around and if she got attacked by several at once, they could definitely kill her. And the possibility that something more dangerous than the skeletons could be lurking around was rather high. She had no desire fighting anything like that.

Alright, she had a plan, of sorts, and she had steadied her breathing. She should probably start looking for a good hideyhole as soon as possible. Though now that the adrenaline had worn off from the fight, Ritsuka noticed a dull pain on her right hand. Did she scrape it on something earlier? 

But as she lifted it to look, Ritsuka felt her heart skip a beat.

Command Spells!

On her right hand, three red symbols had manifested, appearing in a form similar to a shield. Though she had never personally seen a Command Spell, she had read about them during the time it took to travel to Chaldea. There was absolutely nothing else these marks could be. She had somehow qualified as a Master.

But, did she have a Servant? She had read that the Spells manifested during summoning, but could also appear beforehand. Trying to feel around for any sort of anomaly in her circuits, some sign that she was transferring her magical energy to someone else, produced no result. She didn’t feel any different, but it could also be something she couldn’t tell right away. None of the materials she had read in preparation, mentioned anything about knowing if one had formed a contract. Should she use one of the Spells to confirm it by trying to summon them to her? No, that would be stupid. She might just waste one of them for no reason. Waiting was definitely the best option in this situation. Despite the sudden appearance of Command Spells, her earlier plan was still the most viable one.

“Fou fou! Kyu!”

The sudden call knocked Ritsuka out of her pondering. How long had she actually sat there? Turning to look at the critter at her feet, Fou was clearly anxious about something. As soon as she locked eyes with him, he ran to a collapsed wall with a small hole in it some distance away, clearly wanting her to follow. “What is it, buddy?” Ritsuka asked quietly as she moved as carefully as she could to the wall.

As she got the wall, she looked through the hole, too small to even fit her hand through, and surveyed the other side. Scanning the area, her location became slightly more clear. It seemed that she was in some alleyway, which had been separated from the bigger street due to the collapsed wall. Through the hole, she could see an intersection, allowing her better view of the overall area. Most of the buildings she could see were completely destroyed, though there were some in good enough condition to be considered a shelter. Thankfully, there were no more skeletons anywhere in sight. Perhaps she just had bad luck running into one. 

As she was trying to pick the best location to hole in, Fou patted her leg, letting out a quiet bark. It was clearly trying to tell her something. Had she missed something when she-

Ritsuka felt her heart jumping into her throat as she noticed the cause of Fou’s anxiety. She had previously not seen it due to it being on top of one of the collapsed buildings, but as it moved slightly out of the shadows, she immediately realized what it was.

A Servant!

There was no way to mistake it for anything else. Just looking at it, she could tell she would immediately die if she tried to fight it. The skeleton from earlier didn’t compare in any manner. 

The humanoid figure wrapped in dark cloth and wearing something like a skull on its face seemed to be scanning the area. She was actually thankful for the skull thing, since it allowed her to gauge its approximate line of sight out of the dark mass of its body. But what was it looking for? Was it searching for something specific, or?

For a second, Ritsuka considered the possibility that the Servant could have been summoned by her, but disregarded it immediately. She may have been a complete novice of a Master, but she was certain she would be able to recognize a Servant she had formed a contract with. She felt absolutely no connection with the Servant as she viewed it.

Still, this was bad. For all she knew the Servant was like the skeleton from earlier, dead set on killing any human it came across. With the Servant out there searching the area, what would be the best course of action? Without a doubt, heading inside one of the ruined buildings. Staying on any exposed spot like the alleyway was suicide, but inside a building, there would be far fever spots to be seen from, making it the superior choice. If she was lucky, one of the buildings could have a basement or the like, allowing her hole up perfectly.

Careful of her footing, Ritsuka _slowly_ moved away from the collapsed wall, staying as low as possible as she snuck further into the alleyway, Fou right on her heels. She would need the building to be as intact as possible, as well as have an entrance she didn’t need to force open. She couldn’t afford to make any unnecessarily loud noises, since she didn’t know the full capacity of the Servant’s senses. They were definitely superior to a human’s, but by how much, she did not know. As she passed the spot where she had decapitated the skeleton, Ritsuka noticed something she had forgotten. 

The remains.

While the bones on the ground could be explained by someone having been killed, and considering the state of the city it was a rather convincing one, the sword was a far more glaring problem. If someone saw it, they would immediately realize someone had fought a skeleton, basically giving away her presence in the area. As carefully and quietly as she could, Ritsuka picked up the sword, along with the robes the skeleton had worn, and started wrapping the latter around the former. While the sword was rather crude, she could very much cut herself with it if handled carelessly. The wrapping would also stop the metal from reflecting any light, removing the chances of her being discovered by an unlucky shine it might have produced.

Tugging the wrapped up blade under her arm, Ritsuka continued to sneak along the alley, until finally, around the middle of it, she found a house that was in a _comparatively_ good condition. And as a bonus, there was a broken window with effectively no glass in it, allowing her to easily slip inside.

Waiting for Fou to hop in, Ritsuka inspected the interior. It seemed to be a shop of some kind, considering the structure, and she was currently in the backroom. As for what kind of shop, she had no idea. The inside was pretty wrecked. Everything that could be qualified as a product was on the ground, in pieces. If she had to make a guess, it was probably one of those little shops that sold just about anything. But, that was enough analyzing. She had to inspect the building itself. If the shop had a cellar or the like, she would have hit an absolute jackpot on the first try.

Not seeing anything in the backroom, Ritsuka glimpsed at the shop area itself. While unlikely, there could be something in there, so checking it out wouldn’t be useless. Plus, the shop seemingly didn’t have windows at the front, just a closed door, so the chances of her getting detected were rather low. Staying low as she moved through the dark shop, Ritsuka noticed something reflecting the slightest amount of light behind the counter. It could be a handle for a hatch. She knew that some old stores had basement entrances built behind the counter, so if she was lucky, it could be just what she needed.

Sadly, as she crouched to inspect the object in question, blowing some dust and ash off it in the process, it was only a shard of glass. Well, she lost nothing by checking, so it wasn-

Before she could get back up, Ritsuka was stopped by a strong tug on her sleeve. It was Fou. The critter seemed adamant in keeping her down, motioning to her left with his tail. Looking there, she saw a tiny crack in the counter, allowing one to barely see to the other side of the wooden sideboard. Knowing better than to disagree with him at this point, Ritsuka peeked through the crack.

And felt her blood run cold.

Through the crack, she could see the Servant from earlier. Without making the tiniest sound, it had opened the door and entered the building, catching her completely unaware. If it weren’t for Fou’s sharp senses noticing it and notifying her, the Servant would have most likely seen her rise behind the counter and attacked immediately. For now, it just stood by the doorway, looking around the shop, but for how long? 

A plan.

A plan! A plan! A plan! A plan! A plan! A plan! A plan! A plan! A plan! A plan! A plan! A plan! 

She needed something! Anything! But what? What could she even do at this point?!? There was nothing she could do against a Servant!

Calm. She had to stay calm. If she started breathing too heavily, the Servant might hear her and it would be all over. “(Think, Ritsuka, think!)” Something. There had to be something she could do. And then it came to her. The Status. As a Master, she should be able to see information on any Servant she observed. Focusing her sight through the crack, Ritsuka began to read the status of the Servant. 

For a second, she was baffled by what she saw. She knew that the way the parameters of a Servant were viewed depended on each mage. Essentially, each saw them in the most comprehensible way possible to them.

So why the hell was she seeing the strength of a Servant like this?!? In this absolutely ridiculous way?! Was this some kind of joke?! An error in the system?! 

No, in all honesty, the method did somewhat make sense to her, as much as she hated to admit it. Well, the right thing to do was to never, ever mention this to anyone ever, and to take it with her to the grave. She would just refer to the parameters with their common values should anyone ask.

But, back to the life threatening danger at hand, the Servant was rather weak all things considered. Easily strong enough to kill her without much trouble, but in Servant terms it was weak. Considering that, the way it entered without a sound and the dark clothes that melted perfectly into the darkness, this was more than likely an Assassin. That was… not ideal. In all honesty, the strength of the Servant didn’t matter too much. They could all just as easily kill her. It didn’t matter if they needed a weapon to do it or just smashed her with their bare hands, the end result was the same. What did matter was its Presence Concealment. And in this case, it was A+. There was no way she could have detected this Assassin on her own. She had to wonder how Fou did it, but that would have to wait.

The Assassin was still standing there, just looking around. It honestly kind of creeped her out. But, at least she had something of a plan now. Should the Assassin notice her, she would sacrifice one of her Command Spells as a last resort. While their main purpose was to be used on Servants, they could technically be used for just about any magical action. If she powered one of the few offensive spells she had with a Command Spell and caught the Servant off-guard, she might be able to daze it for at least a few seconds, allowing her to escape. It might fry some of her circuits, but it was better than dying. Seeing how the Assassin had no Magic Resistance, it could work. But, this was only the worst case plan. She would do everything to avoid it if she could. Everything would depend on how the Servant would act.

Standing there a few more seconds, the Assassin began to move. And it walked right out of the door, going out the way it came in. Ritsuka could barely believe what had just happened. Had she seriously gotten that lucky?

Waiting for around half a minute, with no warnings from Fou, Ritsuka finally stood up. It would honestly be better to leave this building, since there were ultimately no proper hiding spots. The fact that the Assassin didn’t search the store properly was odd, but she was definitely not missing this chance to get away.

Taking careful, quiet steps, Ritsuka snuck her way towards the doorway to the back room. Ahead of her, Fou pattered along, heading towards the window. Looking back one final time to check for the Assassin, Ritsuka moved through the doorway to the backroom. With no sign of it, she thanked Lady Luck one last time before stepping to the right towards the window.

_creeeeaaaaak_

For a fraction of a second, Ritsuka just stood there, stopping in the middle of her step. 

That had to have been just her imagination, right? 

The floor did not just make an awful creaking sound, right?

“FOU!”

And Ritsuka got her answer.

In the little time she had to think, Ritsuka strengthened her legs and kicked off as hard as she could. The distance to the window was roughly 5 meters. She could make that distance in three steps and less than two seconds.

First step: She watched as Fou jumped out of the window, giving her more room to work.

Second step: She swore she could hear a rush of air behind her, but she didn’t dare to look, as it would slow her down.

Third step: Ritsuka lined herself to pass through the window with this jump, as she cursed Lady Luck with her entire being.

Within the tenth of a second after Ritsuka flew out the window, she heard something smashing right into the wall where it was placed. Landing on the concrete with a hard roll, she quickly stood up to face her assaulter. And, as expected, it was the Assassin. In its hand, it held a curved dagger that had been jammed into the window sill, slicing right through it. Had it hit her, it would have most likely cut her in half.

Not wasting any time, Ritsuka focused her magical energy on her legs again and began to run, hoping to put a slightest bit of distance between herself and certain death. Considering how large the Assassin was, she might still have the slightest chance. Perhaps, if she found a gap small enough to slip through in one of the collapsed walls, and if the Assassin wouldn’t fit through, she might be able to put more distance between them. The idea was absolutely ludicrous, basically impossible in every sort of way, but it was quite literally the only possibility she could think of that would allow her to survive. So, she kept running, taking a turn to the left as the alleyway split. And as she sprinted around the corner, she saw it.

The Assassin was standing right there.

Time seemed to slow as it loomed there. A dagger in its hand, raised high, ready to slice her up. In a rush of adrenaline, Ritsuka did the only thing she could imagine to extend her life even the slightest bit. She kicked as hard as she could on the ground, using the momentum from her turn to uncontrollably trip herself, sending her to a wild roll for a few meters before crashing into a pile of rubble. It had seemingly worked, considering she saw no blood on the ground and the Assassin just standing there. But how did it get in front of her so quic-

Every thought in Ritsuka’s head shut down, as she watched another Assassin walk around the corner she had just ran around. 

There were two of them…

How were there two of them?

Why were there two of them?

As her eyes darted between the two, she realized that their appearance was basically identical. Aside from the obvious cloaks and masks, they were about the same height and had identical daggers in their hands.

Before she could think any further, she watched as the Assassins shared a quick nod and then began to walk towards her. They _walked_ towards her. They didn’t run, nor did they leap, nor did they rush. They just walked, as if they had no hurry or a care in the world.

Ritsuka didn’t know what to think. She just began to frantically move backwards, keeping her gaze locked on the two of them. Not even thinking of standing up, she crawled backwards on all fours, unable to think of anything to get her out of the situation aside from scrambling away from them. And all the while, the Assassin’s continued their leisurely walk.

And then, it happened. Ritsuka felt her back hitting a wall. Her last shred of hope gone. There was nowhere left to crawl and the Assassins still kept walking. They would reach her in a few seconds, and there was nothing she could do.

So, nothing she did. Letting her arms fall limply to her sides, Ritsuka just sat there, leaning against the wall as she watched the cloaked duo moving towards her.

So this was how it all ended, huh?

She had never expected to have some grand, meaningful death, but this was more pathetic than anything she could have imagined.

There she sat, in a burning city in an anomaly in history, every trace of her disappearing once it would be corrected.

No body.

No one to hear her last words.

Killed by some faceless Assassins without even knowing why.

Honestly, it was so pathetic that she felt herself smile the slightest bit. Gazing at the death coming her way, barely noticing the white critter sitting some distance behind the two.

“(Wow… My existence really was completely worthless, wasn’t it?)”

So, she watched as the Assassins stopped, one of them jumping in the air, while the other was blown away by some black mass moving at a great speed.

“...huh?”

Ritsuka could only stare as one of the Assassins was blown away, hit by something large and metallic, and then, dissipated into black dust. She watched as the figure wielding the large, cross-shaped shield turned to the other Assassin, rushing it, and drove the lowest section of the shield into its abdomen, turning it as well to black dust. Now, she was alone with the shield bearer.

She didn’t blink.

She didn’t say anything.

All she could do was stare at the knight that had just saved her.

Knight. That was the only word that came to mind as Ritsuka looked at her savior. Dressed in black, holding her astonishingly large shield, the familiar girl turned to face her.

The short lilac hair, lavender eyes and fair skin. Compared to the sad state she had just been in a few minutes ago, when they held hands, her image looked nothing less than radiant.

“Hostile entities eliminated,” she declared, walking towards Ritsuka, who still just kept staring. As she was right in front of her, the knight bent over slightly and reached out her hand. “Are you alright, Master?”

“...Yeah,” Ritsuka mumbled, feeling heat rising to her cheeks as she was addressed.

Reaching out her own hand, and taking the one offered, Ritsuka couldn’t help but think back to the Command Room, where they last held hands.

And how in contrast to the weak, dying girl back then, the grip on Mash’s hand was incomparably warm and strong.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, here's the beginning of my "little" FGO project.  
> A fun little fact before I go any further: [ **This was originally supposed to be published in 2018** ]  
> Essentially, due to college hell, I had to postpone writing this to hell and back. But now that my life is getting stabilized, I finally feel comfortable to actually start writing this proper.
> 
> Now then, to the proper notes for the story.  
> Yes, this will be another "retelling of FGO, but with my Original Characters: Donut Steel!" type of story.  
> However, it won't be one of those that get cancelled after 2-4 chapters. This is a legitimate passion project of mine that I've been planning since 2018. So unless I literally die, it's getting updates until the end of FGO itself.
> 
> The main focus of this work would be the relationships between the characters, plus expansion on Chaldea itself, as in: "How the hell does Chaldea even function as an organization with like 2 workers?" type of stuff and the life there between singularities.  
> As for the main points of the story, the Singularities, their plots will be tweaked slightly, or in some cases: *glances at the script of Septem, oh god, oh fuck* a lot.  
> Basically, they change with characters making actual, logical decisions, and rewriting stuff like the gang literally travelling across the United States on foot in less than a day. (who wrote this and thought is was good?)  
> As for the Event Singularities, some will stay, like Onigashima and Angry-Man-in-Prison, but the "literally joke" ones will go, like Literally Alien Servants and most Holiday events. Not Gudaguda tho. I love the characters way too much. Though some of them will get some serious rewrites.
> 
> But that's enough for now. I will disclose more rules for this series in future parts, when some of the changes become more relevant. For now, we're quite literally still in the Prologue section of the game. And no worries, the pace will actually pick up from here. I just feel that important moments like the ones in the prologue deserve more attention and detail. If the rest of the series was like this, by the end of Fuyuki I'd have a whole-ass book in my hands. And at that point, my fingers would probably fall off by the end of this.
> 
> As a final note, any questions or critique are welcome.  
> And I mean legitimate ones. Not things like: "lmao why is this so ass?" for comments or "it sucks lol" for critique.  
> For proper critique, stuff like: "(this part) is a bit weird. Wouldn't it make more sense to write it (like this)?" is good. I wish to genuinely improve my writing, so I'd appreciate some actual pointers.
> 
> And as a Dyslexia Bonus: Top 5 ways to misspell "Senpai" (Actual misspells fixed over the course of writing)  
> 5\. Senapi  
> 4\. Senpia  
> 3\. Esnpai  
> 2\. Sneapi  
> 1\. Sneiap <\--(HOW?!?)


	2. An evening stroll through desolate ruins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Not how they would have expected their Thursday evening to go, Ritsuka and Mash find themselves in a city that has become quite close to a hellscape. Traversing through the desolation, they face skeletons, smoldering heat, and a very angry Director, all while trying to evaluate their worth on this mission.
> 
> [Note: Please don't try to read these chapters in one sitting, like holy shit.]

Once she opened her eyes, Mash saw the same thing she always did.

Yes. It was a sight she’d woken up to every morning of her life.

The ceiling of her room.

This was her world. White, sterile floor. The pillow, the sheets, her clothes, all the same. A world in which every moment was scheduled. Each point in time perfectly accounted for, with no deviations permitted.

That’s right. Everything was as it should.

And yet… she couldn’t help but feel something was different.

At first, she thought it was her imagination. After all, this was how it always was. What could possibly have changed?

Then, she felt her right hand.

“Warm…” she mumbled, bringing the appendage close to her face. Her hand felt so warm. It was as if it had been wrapped in a heat blanket.

“But why…” for a moment, she was confused. Why would she feel like this? And why was it so familiar? 

And then, it came to her. “...Senpai.”

Yes, that’s right. She had held her hand back then. With the warmth she still felt now.

Right away, she began to move off the bed. She hadn’t thanked her for what she had done yet. But, as she moved to the edge.

“Ah-” she fell right on her stomach on the floor.

“Huh? Why can’t I…?” For some reason, her legs completely refused to move. All she could do was somewhat move herself ahead by dragging with her arms. “But… I need to…”

For a moment, all she could see ahead of herself was pure white. But then, quite literally in the blink of an eye, someone stood there. A person? But they had basically no features. The stranger in front of her was more like a silhouette than person. Completely white, like everything else. They had a face, yet it was blank. They wore clothes, but their shape was vague.

Yet, before she could say anything, the person leaned down, offering their hand. As Mash took it, they started pulling her up. Instinctively, she began to shift her legs to support herself… and they moved. After she stood up fully, the person still kept holding on.

“...Why?” she asked, not entirely sure herself what she meant by it. Why did they help her? Why were they here? It could’ve been either of those, or something else. As if to reply, the person pressed the hand they were holding to her chest, before finally letting go.

The warmth on the hand. It now seemed stronger than before, spreading across her chest. Yes, that was right. She had to go see Senpai.

The silhouette turned, facing towards the direction she had tried to move to. In response, she walked past them, now knowing where to go.

Leaving the person behind, Mash kept her hand on her chest, starting to run as it grew warmer.

“Senpai…” Faster than she had ever ran before, Mash moved forward, the warmth having spread through her whole body. While she should have grown tired by now, the longer she ran, the more vigorous she felt. It was as if her body grew stronger with each step.

“Senpai!” Her body grew warmer by the second, yet it never felt hot. It was gentle heat that, for a reason she couldn’t explain, made her feel happy. So she ran, and ran, and ran. 

Until finally, she reached it.

The world of empty whiteness was taking shape. And in the distance, she saw her. Sitting on the ground, looking straight towards the two dark figures in front of her, was her Senpai.

The situation was entirely alien to her. She wasn’t sure what to do, her mind searching for a solution.

But, her body knew what had to be done, so she let it take the lead.

The warm right hand she had held to her chest. Mash reached forward with it, and grabbed a hold of something. It was heavy, yet light. Strange, yet familiar. While Mash didn’t know what it was precisely, she knew it was something she could use to protect her Senpai.

And so, with every bit of strength she could muster, Mash Kyrielight charged forward.

  
  
  


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As soon as she was pulled up, Ritsuka felt… strange. She really didn’t know what to say. To ask. So, she just blurted out: “So… you’re a Servant, Mash?”

“Yes,” she answered promptly, surprising Ritsuka somewhat, considering the absurdity of this situation. “I can confirm that a contract was formed between us earlier, Master.”

And then there was that. Right, Mash had indeed called her Master earlier. And now that they were right next to each other, Ritsuka could definitely feel a steady flow of magical energy between them. But… the contract. Was it formed when they held hands in the fire? Honestly, the whole situation seemed really embarrassing afterwards, but she could live with it, since Mash had actually survived. But seriously. Was forming a contract with a Servant really that easy?

“You weren’t injured, right, Senpai?” Mash asked, looking at her torso in a slightly worried manner. “It seemed that you were attacked before I got to you. I’m… sorry for my tardiness…”

“Ah, no. I’m perfectly fine,” Ritsuka assured, which thankfully was actually true. “My uniform got dirty due to a somewhat… reckless dodge of one of the Assassins’ attacks. But there are no injuries due to the Mystic Code’s protection.”

Mash seemed relieved at her answer, offering a slight smile. “That’s good. I’m not really sure what I would have done if you had gotten hurt due to my absence.”

This girl… she really was earnest, wasn’t she? In all honesty, Ritsuka felt bad for making her worry about her safety. But it was far overshadowed by the guilt she felt eyeing Mash’s current… attire. What even was this thing she was wearing? This was supposed to be what a Servant wore to battle, yet it was so… absurdly erotic. Since Mash had worn fairly ordinary clothing earlier, Ritsuka hadn’t really paid it any mind, but with this, this ‘outfit’ she was wearing, it was quite obvious how well endowed Mash really was. She was actually getting slightly aroused by her appearance, which made Ritsuka want to crawl into a hole and write a thousand word apology for Mash. She would have to do her best to focus solely on Mash’s face, for both of their sake. So, by focusing with all her might, Ritsuka reverted her expression back to her usual, serious, dealing-with-people-face.

“Fou!” Suddenly, the familiar white critter jumped from behind Mash, landing on her shoulder. Once settled, he rubbed Mash’s cheek with his fluffy head.

“Oh! Fou is here too?” Mash exclaimed, quick to give the little guy a few scritches. Ritsuka on the other hand could barely focus on them.

All of these absurd things happening right after one another. Ritsuka  _ really  _ needed some time to collect her thoughts. Wiping off dirt from her clothes as a result of her tumble earlier, Ritsuka looked around for a good spot to sit and take a breather. “Alright… we should probably get to a less conspicuous spot to talk things out and form a plan,” Ritsuka started, earning a nod from Mash. While the alley she had just ran from was more than adequate for that, going back there was a bad idea. All the noise had more than likely alerted ‘something’ that there were people in the area, and that’s the first place they would look. Noticing a half collapsed building that had left a small opening to another alley, Ritsuka guessed that would be their best bet. “Over there. Right now, anything is better than this open area.”

“Yes, Senpai,” Mash agreed, walking slightly ahead of her to enter first. “I don’t see anything hostile on this side, so it should be fine for now.”

That was a relief at least. Made even better by that fact that there were actually a few intact buildings on this side. Most of them were on fire though, but at least they could grant some cover. As they walked ahead, Ritsuka spotted a perfect spot hidden between two buildings. A small garage. While some rubble had collapsed on top of it, it was still in good condition. And as a bonus, it wasn’t on fire. “Over here, Mash. You should be able to open the door, right?”

Turning around to look at the spot she had pointed, Mash was quick to get on the job. “Of course. With my current strength, something like this shouldn’t be an issue.” And it really wasn’t. With what seemed like no effort, Mash lifted the garage door high enough for Ritsuka to pass through, then entered herself before lowering it. “Good find, Senpai. This should serve as a temporary shelter while we plan our course of action.”

“Thanks,” Ritsuka nodded as she looked around the garage. There really wasn’t much there, the only things of note were an old toolkit and some foldable chairs. The lights obviously weren’t working, but a small window on the upper part of a wall let some light in, enabling her to see well enough. Taking two of the chairs and unfolding them, Ritsuka sat on one and motioned Mash to take the other, which she quickly did. “Now, we  _ really _ need to start working on our plan of action. I also need to ask you some questions as a Master.”

“Ah, yes. There really is much to discuss,” Mash agreed, looking a bit uncertain. For a few seconds she just sat there, seemingly trying to organize her thoughts. Soon after, she turned to face Ritsuka. “I’m... not really sure where to begin. Perhaps you should start with your questions, Senpai.”

That made sense. Honestly, Ritsuka wasn’t really sure where to begin herself, so she went with the most obvious question. “So, you’re a Servant then. But, I’m pretty sure you weren’t earlier. If you had been, you wouldn’t have been...” What could she even say at that point? Both of them were well aware that she was dying back there. So, she decided to put it as neutrally as possible. “...in that condition in the Command Room.”

“Yes, that is true,” Mash confirmed, though the answer gave way to several more questions. “Until just moments ago, my physical prowess had always been on the lower side. In combat training I always had to stay after class. ...I couldn't even do a pull-up.”

Yeah, admittedly that was somewhat pitiful. To be tasked with a mission like this and having such a weak constitution was pretty questionable. “I see... But, how are you a Servant? I mean, you’re a living person, so how is it possible for you to have the powers of a Heroic Spirit to that decree?”

In response to Ritsuka’s questions, Mash went quiet, her expression turning slightly distressed. She was clearly having a hard time coming up with any answers. This made Ritsuka herself feel bad. It was either that Mash truly didn’t know herself, or the subject was a troubling one. “Oh… If my questions trouble you that much, we can of course move to another one. There are still plen-”

**BE BEEP**

Before Ritsuka could finish, she was interrupted by beeping coming from her Multi-Appliance. And immediately afterwards, a screen containing a familiar face was projected in front of them.

“Right. I finally got through! Hello? This is Chaldea Command Room? Do you read me?”

While the suddenly appeared screen had surprised her, Ritsuka couldn’t deny feeling a considerable amount of relief upon seeing the Doctor’s face. This meant they could receive at least some amount of backup, even if it was just information on the area. She would take anything she could at this point.

“This is Mash Kyrielight, a member of A Team. At this time, I‘ve completed the shift to Singularity F.” Quick to respond, Mash was the one to speak up first. Ritsuka had to wonder if she was used to reporting like this. “My sole companion is Ritsuka Repo. Mind and body both intact. Rayshift compatibility, Master compatibility both satisfactory. Please register her as an official researcher.”

“...So Ms. Repo also got dragged into the Rayshift, huh?” Romani muttered. Both his tone and expression were rather vague, leaving Ritsuka unable to judge whether he was troubled or happy. Though the expression quickly shifted towards the latter. “I'm impressed you didn't ‘lose your existence’. I'm really glad.”

Wait. That was a possibility? She would really need to do more research on the whole Rayshift procedure once she got back to Chaldea. “Yeah... I’m glad as well ...that that didn’t happen...” Oh, yeah. Nailing it with the dialogue right there. Ritsuka almost wanted to slap herself.

However, Romani focused her attention towards Mash next, his expression shifting to baffled. “Also, Mash... Of course I’m glad you're safe, too... But what's up with that outfit? It's shameless! I didn't raise you to dress like that!”

He did it. He actually did it. Watching a blush rise to Mash’s cheeks, Ritsuka felt her jaw drop. Roman had seriously managed to break her dealing-with-people-face with that one comment. Well, yes, Mash’s appearance was... quite something, but for him to just blurt it out like that? Ritsuka couldn’t help but to slip out: “Did you seriously just say that?”

Mash turned to her with a slightly thankful, but still mostly embarrassed look. “Yes, ignoring the Doctor’s tactlessness, Senpai, my current appearance could certainly be considered strange.” Turning her attention back to the man on the screen, Mash began to explain. “l transformed into this. I couldn't protect Senpai wearing Chaldea's uniform.”

In response, Roman seemed even more confused, even somewhat worried. “What do you mean by transformed Mash? Did you hit your head? Or was it that...”

“—Dr. Roman. Please be quiet,” Mash interjected with a tone far sharper than Ritsuka had ever heard from her. The man in question was quick to follow her order, shutting up near instantaneously. “Please check my condition. I think you'll understand the situation better.”

“Your physical condition?” Romani wondered, clicking away at his keyboard for a second before utter shock took over his face. “Wh-Whoa, whoa, whoa, WHOA!” Yeah, that was more than likely the proper response for seeing someone you know well turning into a Servant. Romani seemed to be rechecking the data over and over, as if believing it to be some kind of error. “Physical strength, Magical Circuits, everything’s improved! You're not so much a human, but—”

“Yes, I'm a Servant,” Mash confirmed matter-of-factly, as if it wasn’t an absurdly big deal. Ritsuka couldn’t help but to be impressed at how she was handling the whole situation. If she had to explain the same to someone, well, she wasn’t sure she could even do it properly. “I don't remember how it happened, but it seems I have survived by fusing with a Servant.”

“A Heroic Spirit and a human, fused… A Demi-Servant? That's Chaldea's sixth experiment. I see. So it finally succeeded, huh?” Romani seemed noticeably calmer now that he understood the situation, but Ritsuka was just as bewildered as ever. Fusing with a Servant? Was that seriously possible? Well, the proof sat right in front of her, and it seemed like it had been something Chaldea had actually been trying to achieve. Maybe that was what made Mash so important. While she otherwise seemed rather unassuming, with an ability like that she could definitely be a tremendous asset. But from the way they described it, it seemed more like an accident than anything, which made Ritsuka somewhat nervous.

“Does this Heroic Spirit still have his consciousness?” Yes, that was something Ritsuka would like to know too. Whoever the Servant was, they could certainly provide them with some information. Though she mostly wanted to know about Mash’s abilities for now.

“...No, he gave me his combat abilities then vanished. He never revealed his True Name even at the end. So I don't even know which Heroic Spirit I am…” Mash admitted dejectedly. True, not knowing the exact abilities she herself possessed must have been terribly frustrating. However, it also put Ritsuka’s mind at a slight ease. That was one problem solved right away. “...Nor what kind of Noble Phantasm I'm holding. At this point there's too much I don't know.”

“So that’s what that was...” Ritsuka mumbled, earning the attention of the two. From the moment Mash first appeared in front of her, calling her a Master, this had troubled her immensely. But now, she at least had an explanation. “From the moment I first laid eyes on you, I couldn’t read anything about your Noble Phantasm or some of your Skills,” Ritsuka admitted. In response, Mash looked at her in surprise. “But now it makes sense. If my Servant didn’t properly understand her abilities, how could I?”

“Yes, I can see the logic behind that,” Roman nodded, looking at her questioningly. “But from the way you said that, are you implying that you can see a portion of her abilities?”

“Yes,” Ritsuka confirmed, earning a reassured look from Mash. If she could help Mash with this, she would do everything she could. Were she in the same position, Ritsuka would have most likely been tearing off hair in frustration. All the more reason she felt impressed with Mash’s composure. Sure, Ritsuka could tell she was clearly troubled by all this, but she was still handling it remarkably well. “I can see her Parameters and some of her Skills just fine. As for why I can’t see the rest and Mash doesn’t know about them, I have a theory on that.”

“Really?” Mash asked hopefully, which Ritsuka confirmed with a nod. The way her expression brightened made Ritsuka really hope her theory was actually right. “That’s amazing, Senpai. Then, could you ple-”

“Woah! Wait a minute!”

Mash was suddenly interrupted by Romani’s yelling, turning her attention to the alarmed doctor. The man in question was running his eyes across one of the other screens visible in the background. “I’m picking up a life signature close to your location.”

Following Romani’s announcement, Ritsuka and Mash immediately looked at each, the same thought in their minds. They needed to get to this person immediately. In this absurdly hostile environment, every second counted when it came to saving a normal person, as Ritsuka was well aware. Promptly, the redhead jumped up, turning to the doctor for directions. “Exact location?”

“370 meters to the northeast from your location,” Romani answered while still clicking away, his expression nervous. “But it’s strange. I’m also picking up something else in the area. They’re pretty weak, but they have a magical signature, what in the world could-”

“The skeletons…” Ritsuka realized. She had been lucky enough to only encounter one, but there were definitely more of them around. If this person in question was a competent mage, they would quite likely be able to take down a whole group of them. But if they weren’t…

“Mash! We should head there right now!” she prompted, running to the garage door. 

Mash seemed slightly surprised, but was quick to follow suit. “Yes, Master.” With a single hand, she pulled up the door and let them onto the alley. 

“Romani, turn off the projection but keep the sound on! Let us know if anything significant happens!”

“Oh, uhh, yeah.” With a few awkward presses the screen flickered off, leaving the glowing light on the Multi-Appliance the only indicator they still had signal.

But now there was another issue. To head northeast, they would have to go around the block. Could they really waste time on something like that? From the way Mash looked around, Ritsuka knew she was thinking the same thing. The best solution would most likely be…

But before Ritsuka could figure it out, Mash had already found the solution. “Excuse me, Senpai. Please hold on. I’m going to carry you and jump through the rooftops.”

Wait what?

Before Ritsuka even had time to process the statement, Mash slipped her right hand under her lower thigh, held her left hand on her back for support and lifted the stunned redhead off the ground in a rather pumped up manner. The look on her face was serious, yet eager, the best way to describe it would’ve been like a kid eager to prove themselves. “Whuh-huh?!” Ritsuka’s mind went on overdrive trying to comprehend the situation. This was the best solution? Seriously? How could… Wait. No, she was right. A Servant running while carrying their Master was definitely superior to just running in terms of speed. This was absolutely the fastest solution. As for the best? That was questionable.

“Senpai, please put your right arm around my shoulder for extra stability. I’m going to jump.” At this point, Ritsuka just did as she was told. This situation was... certainly something.

“Fou!”

With a cry, Fou jumped on top of Ritsuka’s stomach, surprising not only her, but Mash as well. “Ah! I’m sorry Fou. We nearly forgot you here.”

“No need to worry about that. This is currently the best and only safe spot we have, so we’d have most likely come back here after the rescue.” In response to Ritsuka’s words, Mash nodded, bending her legs slightly in preparation. Ritsuka wrapped her free left arm around Fou, making sure he wouldn’t fall off.

“We’re going, Master. Mash Kyrielight, taking off!” And with that, came the jump. With a single hop Mash reached the top of a building, and without wasting any time, headed for the next one with another. 

The situation was bizarre to say the least. The wind howling in her ears as they moved was something Ritsuka was used to thanks to her hobbies. But the feeling of being carried was the strange one. Due to Mash negating almost all impact, Ritsuka felt less like moving from one roof to another and more like being on a swing. It was honestly somewhat relaxing.

But not nearly relaxing enough to make her calm down. The feeling of Mash’s bizarrely strong arms holding her, her serious, focused face next to her own. The situation was more than exciting enough to evoke some… feelings in Ritsuka.

“(No! Don’t think about anything else! Just focus on the person we’re supposed to save! We’ll get to them in about half a minute, so there’s no time for anything else! Focus, Ritsuka! Don’t think about the fact that you’re being carried by a cute female knight and youaaahhhh! Nonononononononononooooo! STOP! STOP! STOP!)”

And thus, they raced through the rooftops of the burning city. The Demi-Servant girl and the white beast both blissfully unaware of the mental warfare raging on inside the Master’s mind.

  
  


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Everything was fine. She was doing well. She could do this.

These were the main thoughts running through Mash’s mind as she raced across the rooftops.

Honestly, it still felt a bit strange, leaping across buildings with such ease. She was just so strong now. Every physical and magical aspect of her body had increased an absurd amount. Yet, she was still lacking... She was unable to use her Noble Phantasm and some of her Skills. While she could fight, she wasn’t a proper Servant. 

And yet her Senpai still had faith in her. She had called out to Mash immediately after the Doctor had given them the location. And while she had seemed a tad nervous when she was picked up, she still agreed with her idea and went along with it. Not to mention, she apparently had some idea of why she couldn’t use the power of the Heroic Spirit she had fused with to full capacity. 

There were also other things to consider when it came to Ritsuka. How she seemed so calm and composed in this terrifying, alien environment. Yet she had also been so kind to both Fou and her earlier. Mash really had been lucky to find herself such a dependable Senpai. So, she had to do her absolute best as well as her Servant.

“You’re almost there, at the current speed, you should reach the target in about 20 seconds.” Romani announced from the device around the Master’s wrist. Yes, this had been substantially faster than just running regularly, but something was bothering Mash.

“Doctor, by my estimation we should already have reached the designated spot. Did you fumble when you calculated the distance?” Mash asked in a tone more judgmental than she had intended. The doctor messing up in things like this was nothing particularly new, but considering the situation, such a miscalculation could put her Senpai in danger. If he had actually botched the calculation, she would have to make him straighten up.

“No. I swear I didn’t,” Romani answered. Judging from his tone, he was being serious. Over the years, Mash had come to understand his cues quite well, so it was relieving to hear him sound so sincere. “It’s just that the target is on the move. Unfortunately, they’re moving in the exact opposite direction from you.” So that was it. Certainly, if they were surrounded by hostiles, it made sense that the target was trying to escape. Mash could only hope that the sight delay caused by this wouldn’t prove to be lethal. “By the way, ms. Repo has been really quiet throughout your run. Is everything all right?”

Before the doctor asked, Mash really hadn’t thought about that. Her Senpai hadn’t said a word after they departed. Focusing her attention to her Master for a second, Mash noticed that her eyes were facing forward firmly, completely focused towards their destination. It was as if she hadn’t even heard them talking, focusing completely on something else. While it was important to focus on their task, she had to wonder why Senpai hadn’t answered. And then she figured it out. “While I can freely talk while moving around like this, it’s solely because I’m a Servant. For a regular person, there’s not only the wind resistance that causes trouble, but the danger from accidentally biting one’s tongue is tremendous. I believe Master is avoiding talking for precisely this reason.”

“Ah, that’s true. It’s definitely better to stay quiet in that sort of situation if there’s nothing important to say,” Romani agreed through the transmission. “Alright, you should be very close to the target right about now. Can you see them?”

Mash slowed down and eventually stopped by the edge of the roof they were currently on. Looking around, she couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary. As out of the ordinary as something in a burning city could be. Slowly, Mash lowered her right arm, helping Ritsuka back on her feet. “Do you see anything, Senpai?”

For a second, Ritsuka continued her silence, seemingly focusing on something else. Though she finally turned towards Mash upon realizing she had been addressed. “Ah, no. There’s really nothing eye catching around here.” As she began to look around the area, Mash noticed a faint glow in her Senpai’s eyes. A clear sign of Strengthening. Yes, that would certainly be useful in a chaotic environment like this. “Doctor, can you give us anything more specific about the targe-”

“Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!”

The sudden scream alerted their attention to a street about half a block away, where the source of the cry sprinted out into the open, followed by a dozen skeletal creatures.

Mash immediately summoned her shield, ready to move in, while Ritsuka was quick to withdraw her request, eyeing the person leading the crowd with her usual, calm expression. “OK, never mind. We just found the-” Suddenly stopping in the middle of her sentence, Mash noticed how her Senpai’s expression suddenly gave a hint of astonishment. “Wait! That’s Director Animusphere!”

“Waaaahhhhhhhhh!” Romani yelled out of the Multi-Appliance. His tone was a rather rare one. Mash only ever heard him yell like that whenever he lost connection to that Internet idol of his. “D-Director? She’s alive? Just how sturdy is she?”

“Not helping,” Ritsuka sighed as she returned to her calm self. With a serious expression, she turned to face Mash. “Please save the Director, Mash. The skeletons are rather weak compared to you, so a single punch should be enough to take one down. No need to worry about me, I can get down on my own. Doctor. Stop freaking out and keep track of anything unusual in the area. We don’t want any nasty surprises now.”

At first, Mash could only look at her Master beside her. Despite the chaotic situation, she still managed to keep her calm and give sensible orders. But, that came to an end when she remembered that she was the one to fulfill her order. “Yes, Master! Mash Kyrielight, entering combat!”

Leaping to the roof closest to the one they were on, Mash rushed towards the screaming director and her pursuers. There were quite a few of the skeletal beings, but if she attacked from above with a powerful strike on the ground, the shock wave should be enough to take down a few of them. After all, her Senpai had said that just a punch from her would be enough to defeat them. And of course, Mash believed her. She had said it with such confidence that it was hard to imagine it being untrue. Yet...

The idea of fighting... it still scared her. While she had received the powers and Skills of a Servant, while she had the ability to fight, it still felt so... alien. Aside from combat training, she had never actually been in a fight.

But still, this was something she had to do. That was simply because no one else could do it. While the skeletons were seemingly individually weak, with this many, her Senpai couldn’t possibly stop them by herself. And the Director, while a capable magus, was seemingly too frightened to even consider fighting them. Besides, her Senpai, her Master, had said that they were weak compared to her. Which meant that she believed that Mash could handle the situation. And Mash wanted to warrant that trust. If she couldn’t handle something like this, she couldn’t possibly call herself a Servant.

“Wh-Who are these guys, anyway? Why do these things keep happening to me?” the Director screamed as Mash closed in on her. She was now only a few dozen meters away. With a single leap off the rooftop, she could reach the assaulters chasing the distressed woman. She had to do this. Right now!

Mash thought back to the time she had saved her Senpai from the Assassins. That feeling she felt as she rushed forward to save her. That was how she had to feel again. Not to just fight, but to save. To protect. She had saved her Senpai, and now she had to do the same to the Director. 

And so, Mash jumped.

“I can't take it anymore! Come save me, Lev! You were always there for me right?!” the Director screamed hysterically, not even noticing the girl wielding a large shield jumping over her. Putting all her strength into her arms, Mash slammed her shield into the concrete right in front of the first skeleton.

“Yaaaaaa!”

Feeling the impact on her arms, Mash watched as her attack smashed the ground beneath her to pieces, crushing a few of the skeletons outright and taking out a few more with the debris being flung at their bone bodies. All in all, her attack had taken out more than half of them, with just four more remaining. Not wasting any time to allow them to recover, Mash charged one of the remaining ones, ramming it with her shield. On impact, the bones shattered like glass, crumbling on the ground.

“H-huh? Mash?!” Hearing the Director talking behind her, Mash allowed herself a quick look to check that she was alright between the attacks. Judging from her appearance, she didn’t seem injured, only frightened and confused. A natural reaction to their current circumstances. Her quick check finished, Mash took hold of the grip running close to the edges of her shield and swung it in a wide arc, shattering two more hostiles on impact. With the final one trying to take a swing at her from behind, Mash used the momentum from her swing, kicking out her leg to smash it pieces, catching herself off guard in the process.

Looking around to make sure no more hostiles were around, Mash let out a relieved sigh. She had done it. The Director was fine and the area was clear. Taking in a few more breaths to calm herself, Mash thought about what had just happened. It was bizarre... the way her body  _ knew _ what to do without her mind giving it clear directions. She had wanted to use her shield to deliver all the strikes, but that kick at the end... She had just done it, like it was perfectly natural. It had  _ felt  _ natural, flowing together with her swing to form a perfectly fluent combination attack. And her Senpai had been right. It only took a single strike from her to dismantle each skeleton. They hadn’t been strong enemies that could pose any significant threat to her. So... why did she feel scared?

It was most noticeable on her hands, but she also felt it on her shoulders and legs.

She was shaking.

But why? She was supposed to be a Servant, a being whose main purpose was to fight. How could she feel scared over fighting something so clearly weaker than her? Why did she feel this way?

“That form... ” a voice mumbled behind her, snapping Mash from her thoughts. Director Olga Marie stood there, looking at her in astonishment. Her expression had lost nearly all the previous fright, but the confusion aspect was still very much present. “...What's going on?”

“Are you alright, Director?” Turning at the call that came from behind her, the Director looked at quickly approaching Ritsuka with increased confusion, seemingly ignoring the white critter running right behind her. Mash couldn’t help but to be impressed with her again. She had climbed down from the roof and sprinted to their location in the time it had taken Mash to finish off the hostiles. Ritsuka had really meant it when she said that Mash didn’t need to worry about her. “Good work, Mash,” she quickly acknowledged before turning her attention back to the Director. “We came as quickly as we could. You weren’t injured, were you?”

For a few more seconds, the Director continued to stare at the Master in disbelief, until she found her words. “You! You’re that insolent, tall woman that fell asleep during the orientation!” Flinching slightly at the heated words flung at her, Ritsuka looked like she was about to grimace for a split second but managed to keep her composure. “Why are you of all people here?!”

“We got caught up in the Rayshift and were sent here,” Ritsuka explained, keeping her calm expression despite the scowling Director in front of her. Though she added somewhat dejectedly, “...and did you have to describe me like that?”

“Yes!” Confirming her remark, seemingly to the Master’s frustration, the irritated woman turned to face Mash next. “And you, Mash, you’re a Demi-Servant right? It‘s pretty obvious that you fused with a Servant,” she demanded, giving Mash barely enough time to nod before continuing. “What I want to know is why it's successful now all of a sudden!”

“Yeah, things have gotten crazy, haven’t they?” Appearing on the screen projected from Ritsuka’s Multi-Appliance, Romani managed to seize everyone’s attention. And with his appearance, the Director managed to somehow look even more confused. “But, we should all calm down and-”

“ Huh?! Why are you running the show, Romani?” Seemingly uninterested with the suggestion to calm down, the Director now turned her ire towards the Doctor on the screen. “What's the head medic doing in charge? What about Lev? Where's Lev? Put Lev on!” 

Faced with the furious demands, Romani’s expression shifted to a solemn, yet sincere one. It was an expression Mash had rarely seen on him, but whenever she did, she knew the Doctor was absolutely serious. “Dr. Lev was supervising from the Command Room,” he reported. Immediately, the Director’s expression fell. “He was right in the middle of the explosion. There's no way he could survive that blast.”

With the exception of the crackling fire, there were no sounds. The Director continued to stare at the screen in disbelief as Romani continued. “The reason I'm in charge of operations is because there's no one ranked higher than me who survived. Judging from the observational instruments, currently, the surviving full time staff of Chaldea is about twenty people, including me.”

Taking her eyes off the Director, Mash glanced at her Senpai on her side. While she seemed as calm as usual, she wasn’t looking at the screen. Instead, her eyes were faced towards the ground, understanding the gravity of the situation.

Indeed, Mash understood as well. With around twenty people remaining, it meant that Chaldea had lost approximately 90% of its staff. The Director’s reaction was well earned. The events leading up to their current situation had effectively all but disabled Chaldea. Not only did it make them receiving aid in the Singularity highly unlikely, but even when they returned, how much would there be left of the facility?

“No way——Lev... ” the Director mumbled as her eyes fell towards the ground. From the look she had on her face, it seemed as if the poor woman was about to go into shock for a moment. However, with a sudden jolt, she seemingly regained her focus, turning her eyes back to Romani. “No, forget that, wait... please wait. 20 survivors? What about the Master candidates ...the coffins?”

Keeping his serious expression, the Doctor answered. “...All 47 are in critical condition. We just don’t have enough medical equipment. We might be able to save a few, but most of them might be—”

“Don't be ridiculous!” the Director shouted, much to the shock of everyone present. Though the concern was still evident on her face, she had regained a portion of her earlier fire. “Cryopreserve them immediately! Think about reviving them later. Your top priority is to make sure they don't die!”

For a second, Romani only stared at her in surprise, but was quick to start clicking away on his control panel as soon as he recovered. “I'll get on it right away!”

Though her Senpai remained quiet to the side, Mash knew the reason for the Doctor’s surprise. What Director Olga Marie was ordering him to do was very much illegal, and they were both well aware of it. “...That surprises me,” Mash noted, turning the Director’s attention to herself. “Cryopreservation without prior consent is a crime. Yet you made the decision right away. You put human lives ahead of your own reputation as the director.” In all honesty, her reaction was a pleasant surprise for Mash. While the two of them had never interacted much directly, the Director had always seemed like a strict and by-the-book type of person. Seeing her act like this was... reassuring.

“Don't be stupid!” Responding with her returning ire, the Director frowned at Mash’s implication. Though it notably lacked the usual bite. Even after giving the order, she seemed as concerned as ever. “As long as they're not dead, I can explain myself later - why else? In the first place, 47 lives... There's no way can I carry that burden!”

Continuing her raving, Olga Marie began to gnaw on the nail on her thumb. Though as she turned away from Mash, her anger subsided, giving way to more unease. “Please don't die... I'm begging you... If only Lev were here!”

“Ahem! If I may?”

Upon hearing the question, both Mash and the Director turned their attention on the third person with them. Ritsuka had been quiet throughout the Doctor's report, but had seemingly judged the current moment as appropriate to speak up. “While the Doctor works on the coffins, I think we should get to a safer area. Before Mash and I came here, we secured a  _ relatively  _ safe location in one of the buildings. While it’s not the most secure spot imaginable, it’s still intact and should keep us out of sight in case trouble appears. It’s definitely better than just standing here on the street.”

The Director looked like she really wanted to rebut, but was seemingly unable to come up with anything, so she in the end just let out an exhausted sigh. “Alright, where exactly is this spot?”

Turning to point towards the direction they had come from, Ritsuka began to explain. “Approximately 400 meters that way. We should get there in about ten minutes if we don’t run.”

“Fine!” Huffing to herself, Olga Marie began walking towards the street in the direction Ritsuka had pointed. Despite seeming both tired and frustrated she walked rather briskly, most likely just wanting to get somewhere quiet. “Literally anywhere is better than just here.”

Letting the huffing Director walk ahead, Ritsuka turned to Mash. “Let’s get going. If you could, please keep an eye out for any possible dangers, Mash”

“Yes!” Mash confirmed, stepping to her Master’s side as they followed after the Director. Truthfully, Mash was very glad she had brought up the garage. With everything going on, it had honestly slipped her mind, so she would have most likely kept quiet about it without a reminder. It really was comforting having such a reliable Senpai.

  
  


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“This is it, right here,” Ritsuka pointed at the garage as Mash began to open the door. Finally. They were finally back. It was nice that the Director had calmed down substantially, but that was only a miniscule portion of her sources of distress, so she couldn’t get too comfortable. This whole thing was really beginning to drain her. Thank God for Mash being here. Not just because she was a Servant, but for her genuine eagerness to help. It was honestly really comforting. Although…

Walking past Mash into the garage, Ritsuka gave her a quiet: “Thanks,” which the Demi-Servant acknowledged with a small smile. Though she seemed fine now, Ritsuka had definitely seen it earlier, after the fight with the skeletons. She had clearly tried to hide it, and while the Director had been too shocked to pay attention, Ritsuka did notice. Mash was shaking. It wasn’t the type from exhaustion or something else. She had clearly been afraid.

Thinking about it, it made sense. Mash had almost certainly never been in a real fight before. Definitely not in one that had stakes anywhere close to this. Of course she would be afraid when thrust in a situation like this, even with the considerable power of a Servant. And yet she still tried. Even when she was afraid, she still did her best. She had even tried to hide her fear, to keep up a strong front. And while Ritsuka had seen through her, she couldn’t really blame Mash. After all, it had taken her literally years of work to properly hide her own signs.

Ritsuka really was lucky to have someone like her as her Servant. After all, when Mash was working so hard despite her problems, Ritsuka couldn’t just sulk around worrying about her own. Since Mash was now her Servant, she would have to reciprocate that attitude as her Master, working just as hard!

“You really weren’t exaggerating when you said this wasn’t the safest spot.” Bringing Ritsuka’s attention back to the garage with her huff, the considerably calmer Director sat on one of the chairs Mash and Ritsuka had left behind. “But true. It’s still better than that street out there.”

Letting Mash take the remaining chair, Ritsuka picked up another one from the corner, unfolding it and seating. They could finally start forming something of a plan. That is, as long as their sole contact was available. “Doctor, you there?” Ritsuka asked.

“Yeah,” the man in question confirmed, appearing on the projected screen once more. “All coffins have now cryopreserved their contents, so I’ll start by giving the rest of my status report.” Clicking a few buttons, another screen suddenly popped up next to Romani’s face, showing a three dimensional map of Chaldea. “First off, the main areas affected by the explosions were the Command Room, the Reactor room and their immediate areas. As such, the portion of Chaldea that holds the living quarters, cafeteria and the recreational rooms was basically unaffected since they’re on the other side of the facility. Another major location that was unaffected was the summoning chamber, so the FATE system is still fully intact.”

“I see. That’s some good news at least...” the Director mumbled, looking over the map in a scrutinizing manner. Though Ritsuka eyed the map for a bit, there really wasn’t much of a point. There were no labels anywhere, so she had basically no idea what rooms she was looking at. “Wait! What about this?!” Earning Ritsuka’s attention, the Director pointed at a relatively large room some distance away from the Reactor. Both the hallway around it and a portion of the room had been colored red, differing from the more common light blue of most of the map. “Why is a portion of it red? Don’t tell me the Automata Center was destroyed!”

“Ah, that,” Romani nodded as he adjusted the map to show the area better. “I actually managed to contact the facility earlier. Basically, the entrance collapsed, trapping the Staff inside. However, due to ‘Pressure Man’ being there, it actually managed to stabilize the room, preventing most of it from collapsing. While they are technically stuck there, they’re not in any danger.”

“At least something is going right,” the Director sighed, hints of both relief, and for some reason, frustration present on her face. “As long as we have some of the automata remaining, repairs should be possible even with minimal staff.”

While Ritsuka was glad to hear that Chaldea could still manage to pull itself together, she couldn’t help but to be a bit confused. So apparently there was a workshop for creating automatons in Chaldea, which made sense. They would most likely be used for menial tasks like cleaning and such, which was something they did at the Clock Tower from what she had heard. But in the world was ‘Pressure Man’? It had to be something fairly powerful, since it had stopped the room from collapsing, but what kind of name was that?

Seemingly noticing the confusion in her eyes, Romani turned towards her. “Ah, you don’t probably know it, since you’re new, but Chaldea uses automata for a variety of things. Mostly they keep the corridors clean, since having any human on that duty would just be evil, but they also help deliver supplies and materials where they’re needed. Oh, and some of the stronger ones help with heavy lifting, especially during construction.”

“Yeah, that’s what I figured,” Ritsuka nodded. So her guess had been right, but there was still the question that had buggled her. “But what is this ‘Pressure Man’ you mentioned?”

“Oh, yeah. Hah. That would probably be confusing to anyone not from Chaldea,” Romani laughed while the Director seemed to grow more frustrated. Though the Doctor didn’t seem to notice as he continued. “It’s basically a really powerful automata, a real cream of the crop by modern standards. Funnily enough, it was made ‘just to flex’ by Di-”

“Enough about that!” Shocking Romani out of his ramble with her shout, the Director now looked about the same as she did while they were on the street, making Ritsuka regret that she had bothered to ask. Really should’ve saved it for later. “We don’t have time to waste on stroking that idiot’s ego! Especially now, since he might well be dead!” Her words clearly had an effect on Romani, turning the Doctor’s expression from shocked to somber. And while she hadn’t said anything this entire time, Ritsuka noticed Mash having a similar reaction. Though the Director didn’t seem to care as much, continuing with her rant. “He was in the Reactor room during the explosion, and as we can see from the map, it has been almost completely demolished.” There was no doubt about that. Judging from the map and the red areas on it, the ceiling of the room in question had completely collapsed, causing some of the floors above it to crash down and bury most of it in rubble.

“Yes, you’re exactly right, Director,” Romani admitted in a melancholy tone, moving the map around to view the room from different angles. “And with the collapse, I’ve been unable to receive any concrete date, since all surveillance equipment was destroyed. So we don’t even know how severe the damage to the main reactor is. In the worst case scenario, it’s possible that the core has been damaged, and in that case, we might even need to evacuate the facility.”

More bad news, as if they didn’t have enough to worry about already. The Director had begun gnawing her thumbnail again, while Mash remained quiet, but serious. Ritsuka really didn’t know what to say. Better yet, should, or could, she even say anything. While she was far more adept with technology than most mages, she really didn’t know much about this kind of stuff. Judging from the way Romani had described it, Chaldea seemingly had a nuclear reactor. She had only seen a few documentaries on the subject, so she was far from an expert, but from what she did know, having a reactor with an exposed core was basically a catastrophe on its own.

“And considering that the man who knows most about the reactor is likely dead, we might have to quaren-”

**BEEP! BE BEEP BEE!**

Interrupted by the sudden beeping coming from his control panel, Romani turned to the Director questioningly, seemingly wondering if it was fine to interrupt his report. For once, though, she didn't seem to mind. "Go on. One of the staff might have something important to report. We can't afford to ignore any possible calls in this situation."

Receiving permission, the Doctor clicked somewhere to open the communication channel. "This is Chaldea Command Room, Romani Archaman speaking. Please stat-"

"ROMAN WHAT THE  **FUCK** IS GOING ON?!?"

Romani nearly fell over, startled by the sudden yelling, while the three in the garage could only watch in confusion. That was… certainly a way to greet someone. Ritsuka looked to her side, hoping to find some clarification. However, while Mash seemed just as confused as she was, the Director was downright bewildered, breaking the few following seconds of silence with: "You speak the devil's name and he shall appear..." 

"So Olga is there too, huh? That's good, makes dealing with this easier." The person speaking seemed to have heard her, much to Ritsuka's surprise. The Director had been rather quiet, yet this man, judging from the voice, had perfectly understood her even between the communications. And seeing how the Director referred to him, he was most likely the person who made the so called Pressure Man. But if that was the case... "Everything's really gone to shit, hasn't it?"

"Arista?! You're still alive?!" Snapping herself from the shock, Olga Marie started questioning the man. While both disbelief and frustration were clearly noticeable from her tone, she also seemed somewhat relieved. "You were by the main reactor during the explosion, right? How are you not buried under ten tons of rubble?"

"Yes, I still am in the room. And it was 17 tons for the record." Confirming the questions just made the whole thing seem even more unbelievable to Ritsuka. Who in the world was this person? Then again, if he had supposedly created an automata that could keep a room from collapsing, surviving the collapse of another wasn't too far fetched. Chaldea really was a strange place. "As for how, all I needed was some quick thinking and an absurdly sturdy bounded field just large enough to cover myself and few others."

"Others?" Romani questioned, finally joining the conversation. While still serious, his tone had a bit of hopefulness in it. "How many survived?"

"...Six," the man answered after some time, sounding somber compared to earlier. "Considering that there were 42 people in the room, it's not much, but given the time-frame it was the best I could do."

"A seventh then…" the Director mumbled, back to biting her nail. Ritsuka couldn't even imagine the pressure on her, nor did she want to. To be solely responsible for the lives of all these people... Ritsuka really hoped she would never have to shoulder that much responsibility. A person or a few was fine, but this many? Just thinking about it made her sick. "No, it's still more than we estimated, so we can't hang on it for now. But more importantly, Arista. What can you tell us about the reactor? Since you're in the room, analyzing the damage should be easy for you."

"That's actually one of the good news," he announced, surprising both Romani and the Director. They clearly hadn't expected the answer. "The upgrades in the past few months really came in handy. The reactor itself suffered minimal damage from the explosion. The only major problem is transferring the power across the facility, but fixing that really shouldn't take too long."

"That's great!" The Director sounded almost happy as Roman nodded on the screen. While they understood the significance of the words far better than her, Ritsuka was just happy that they got any good news in the first place. "How long by your estimations?"

"I'd say it's about 22 hours of work, so with breaks, a bit under two days should be enough."

“I see... It’s fast, but not fast enough to really help with our current predicament.” Standing up from her chair, the Director began to walk around the garage, seemingly deep in thought. Different from her earlier worrying, she seemed to be genuinely working up a plan in her mind, made obvious by the fact that she wasn’t gnawing on her fingernails.

After around ten seconds of mumbling, she returned to her seat, allegedly finished with her thoughts. “Alright, here’s what we’re going to do. First, you Arista. Get the surviving staff out of the room. Then go to the Automata Center and help the staff there. We need as many workers as possible. After that, head to the Command Room and start clearing things out. The Coffins have been frozen, but they’re still all over the place due to the explosion. Start gathering them up and we’ll select which we can defreeze for medical attention first.”

“Alrighty then. I’ll check on some of the other areas on the way to make sure there’s no serious structural damage that could cause another collapse later.”

And with that, the transmission cut off, leaving the four of them alone once more. “Now, as for us,” the Director continued, standing up once again to address all of them. “Romani, start shifting any available manpower to Rayshift repairs, and maintaining Chaldeas' and Sheba's current states. Make the Rayshift repairs your top priority.”

“Roger that. I’ll begin right away,” Romani nodded, starting once again typing on the console. “But what about you, Director? Is that garage safe enough for you to wait in?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. I can't possibly afford to do that…” Seemingly confused by the retort Romani stared at the Director as she began explaining the rest of her plan. “As for us, we'll be investigating this town. The Singularity F.”

Silence fell over the garage as Ritsuka, Mash and Romani all stared at her in equal surprise. Ritsuka wasn’t really sure what to think. She could tell that the Director was absolutely serious, but that didn’t make any sense. A team of 48 Masters was supposed to handle this, yet she suggested that just the three of them accomplish it?

Romani was the first to break the silence. “Director, you're not afraid to be at ground zero? Since when did you become so brave?” And what a way to start. First the comment on Mash’s appearance and now this? Ritsuka really wanted to know how the Doctor had survived living his life being so socially inept.

“...Seriously, you don't know when to shut up.” Putting the thoughts of the three women present into words, Olga Marie glared at the tactless Doctor. Taking a deep breath, seemingly trying to rid herself of frustration, the Director began her explanation. “I'd like nothing better than to go back now, but it's going to take time till you finish the Rayshift repairs. This town only contains low-level monsters, with Mash as a Demi-Servant we'll be safe. Accident or not, we Animuspheres pride ourselves on doing our best in the situations we‘re given. I'll be looking into Singularity F with Ritsuka Repo and Mash Kyrielight as investigators.”

So she really was serious about this. Honestly, while what the Director said about them being safe with Mash was most likely true, this seemed quite risky. The cause of this devastation could very well end up being something more powerful than her, yet the Director was willing to risk her own life in this investigation. Ritsuka couldn’t help but to find that admirable, though her true motives still eluded her. “That said, since my field staff is inexperienced, the extent of this mission will be to discover the cause of this anomaly. Analysis and eradication will have to wait until after Chaldea's restored, and I can send in a second team.” Concluding her briefing, the Director turned to face Ritsuka directly. “You okay with that?”

“Yes, Director,” Ritsuka answered almost immediately. It had been relieving to hear that they were to only investigate the cause of the singularity, since it meant that the Director perfectly understood their situation. And, as much as she hated to take advantage of their blight, this was also the perfect chance for Ritsuka to redeem herself in the eyes of the Director. If she performed well on this mission, she might not only erase the damage caused by her falling asleep, but to end up in the positives. And while she did feel a bit guilty, the Director had said it herself: ‘doing our best in the situations we‘re given.’ She had to put up her A-game and seem as competent of a Master as possible. “I am ready to work as long as Mash is.”

“Of course, Master,” Mash confirmed, giving her an eager nod. “While I might still be a novice as a Servant, I’ll do my utmost to keep you two safe.”

“Roger that, then. Best of luck to you, Director. Feel free to contact me in an emergency.” Seemingly accepting her decision upon seeing that both Ritsuka and Mash were up to the task, Romani continued his typing. “Oh, and it seems that Automata Center’s doors have been cleared, so I should be getting some help over here soon.”

“I can’t stand that man, but at least he gets things done when he’s serious about something.” Sighing seemingly from just thinking of this Arista guy, the Director leaned in to reach for Ritsuka’s multi-appliance. “I'm cutting off the connection now, Romani. Go do your job.”

“Sure thing.”

As the screen containing the Doctor flickered away, Olga Marie then turned to stand in front of her two investigators. “Now, it’s time we begin with a plan of action. Since you two were around for a while before coming to pick me up, did you manage to figure out anything useful?”

“Not really, no,” Mash admitted, seeming a bit unsure about something. “...While I did already agree to help both you and Senpai on this investigation, Director, are you sure about this? There's also the option of waiting here for rescue.”

“I can't afford to do that...” Growling in response to the suggestion, the Director started to show some of her earlier stressfulness again. “After we return to Chaldea, who knows how long it will take to select the next team? A month won't be enough to gather personnel or funds. Do you know how much the Association will harass me in the meantime? Worst case, they'll blame me for mismanagement, and I'll lose Chaldea to them.” Yes, Ritsuka could definitely see that happening. While she had no personal experience dealing with the Association, her father had made it a part of her education to inform her of the numerous ways they could ‘confiscate’ assets from other mages for little to no reason, and taught her much about how best to deal with them. While she might be a Lord, the Director was still in a very real danger here. “And if that came to pass, I'd be toast. I can't go back empty-handed. I need something that will shut them up! ...Sorry, but you're both stuck with me, Mash, Ritsuka.”

“I agree with your reasoning, Director,” Ritsuka admitted. “If they saw an opportunity, the Association would besiege Chaldea much like a pack of wolves would a lost sheep.”

“Exactly,” Olga Marie huffed in response, crossing her arms. “You might be from a fletchling family, but it’s good to know that you’re aware of how the Association works.”

“Hard to survive in our world without knowing,” Ritsuka confirmed, earning an approving nod from the Director. So good so far. She had to try to push a bit more to really make herself look good, so she decided to share her earlier theory. “Now, to get back to our situation. I believe what’s happening in this city is the result of some type of magecraft ritual gone wrong. This type of complete destruction is too unnatural, and given that all the people seem to be missing, the fact that we can’t even find traces of corpses, and these weird skeleton soldiers, I can’t really think of any other explanation.”

“Good deduction, rookie,” Olga Marie acknowledged, making Ritsuka cheer internally. “No natural disaster could cause this type of destruction. The situation is far too unnatural. As for the ritual, that’s also most likely correct. And I’m quite sure I know the ritual responsible.”

“Really?” Managing to ask before Ritsuka, Mash stared at the Director in surprise. The Master herself was caught just as off guard. Sure, the Director was a Lord of the Clock Tower, but to have figured it out so quickly. “How did you deduce it so quickly?”

For a second, Olga Marie stood quiet, seemingly deep in thought. After roughly ten seconds, just before Ritsuka was about to question her further, she began to explain. “It would be reasonable to consider the cause being a Holy Grail War.”

“ _ Holy Grail _ War?” Did, did that seriously mean what Ritsuka thought it did? If something like that was involved, it could definitely explain the damage, but... “You mean the Holy Grail from the Arthurian legends?”

“Yes, that's the one.” Upon confirmation, Ritsuka felt her facial muscles loosen. This was... definitely something. Glancing to her side, she could see from Mash’s expression that she shared the same astonishment. “The Holy Grail War is a type of magecraft ritual where 7 Servants are summoned to fight each other. Well, technically Seven Masters fight each other, and the Servants are used as their weapons.”

“Fight each other?” Mash questioned. “What would they do that for?”

“To obtain the Grail of course.” Stating the fact that a modern mage could obtain a legendary artifact so matter-of-factly, the Director cleared her throat a bit before continuing. “This will take a minute, so I’ll try to summarize as best as I can. Originally the Holy Grail was a Holy Relic once held by Christ. The Grail used in a Holy Grail War is of course, not the original, but the two have a common feature. That is, they both ‘hold the power to grant any wish’. It is for that reason the Masters and their Servants fight to obtain the Grail. And according to Laplace's observations, a Holy Grail War was confirmed in this city in 2004. The Fuyuki Holy Grail War system is simple. Seven Masters fight each other. The last one standing gets the Grail. Chaldea learned about this in 2010. My father... I mean, the previous director used this data to build the summoning system. That's what makes up Chaldea's Heroic Spirit Summoning System, Fate. Our third invention after Laplace and Chaldeas.”

“I... see…” This really was a lot to take in all at once. Ritsuka knew that the first day in a new job should be about learning but this was on an entirely different level. And judging from Mash’s reactions, this was all new to her as well. For someone who had lived their entire life in Chaldea, she knew surprisingly little. But, if this Grail War had also happened during proper history, then the result must’ve been different from all... this. “So, what really happened during the Grail War? It certainly wasn’t a disaster like this. Even the association would have trouble covering destruction like this.”

“Yes. Nothing like this,” the Director nodded, confirming her inquiry. “Seven Servants fought here, and in the end, Saber was victorious. The town wasn't destroyed, and the Servants shouldn't have been noticed by anyone, but... Now this is happening. We should assume that  the outcome changed due to this Singularity.”

“Alright, I think I’m starting to get a clear picture now.” Yes, while Ritsuka still had her share of questions, things were beginning to make at least some sense. At least a partial explanation was better than none at all.

“But Director, from what you’ve told us, the ‘something’ that distorted the original history is more than likely the Grail. But why would it cause such complete destruction?” Mash spoke up, asking the question that had also been on Ritsuka’s mind.

“If I had to guess, either some lunatic won the Grail or some third-rate nobody got in way over their head, lost control of their Servant and managed to destroy the entire city. So, all we have to do is locate the origin and analyze what kind of countermeasures we need to get rid of it.”

The Director sounded quite confident in her statement, standing in front of them quite proudly. And while Ritsuka agreed with her reasoning, there was a detail that bothered her. “And how do we go about locating this origin? Should we go around searching the local leylines for a workshop?”

In response to her question, the Director’s confidence turned into pride. A smug look growing on her face. “Hmph. Are you forgetting who you’re working for? Like I explained during the orientation, Chaldea has the finest technologies in the world. The only ones who could even hope to rival us are the Atlas alchemists. We don’t need to just wander around aimlessly. The location of the origin will become clear as soon as we find a high enough viewpoint.”

A high enough viewpoint? Ritsuka was admittedly lost. While they could definitely view the environment from there, how would that help with some technology. But before she could come up with an answer, Mash spoke up from her side. “Ah, the Definite Geographical Analyzer, Sigma.”

“Exactly,” the Director confirmed. “With it, we are capable of mapping out the entire city at once, thus finding any possible location for a powerful magical source.”

“Yes, that is certainly true,” Mash nodded as Ritsuka fell further and further behind in the conversation. She understood that they were going to use some device to map out the city, but that was about it. The finer details still eluded her. But she wouldn’t dare to ask at this point. The way the Director talked made Ritsuka quite clear that she was actually supposed to know about it. Just how long had she slept while standing? “But how are we supposed to use it?” Mash continued as Ritsuka hoped for some clearer details. “We lack the proper supporting equipment to fully utilize it.”

“I’ve already got it all figured out, so don’t worry.” At least the Director seemed confident in her statement, so both Mash and Ritsuka mentally agreed to go along with her. It really was relieving to have an actual plan with clear directives. “Now then, before we head out, does anyone have anything more to say? Any questions or observations?”

At first, Ritsuka really couldn’t think of anything. Everything seemed perfectly clear, yet something...

And then she remembered. With everything happening, it had slipped to the back of her mind, but with the Director’s question, she recalled an extremely important detail. Looking at Mash purposefully, it seemed that she had remembered as well. “The Assassins.”

“Wait, what?” Olga Marie’s expression shifted from an epitome of confidence, to nervous confusion nigh instantaneously, her eyes shifting between the two of them questioningly. “What do you mean by ‘Assassins’?”

Ritsuka was quite sure that she knew perfectly well what they meant, but simply hoped that it wasn’t actually the case. Still, she had to tell it to her straight. “We mean as in the Servant kind. Mash fought two of them right after we got here.”

The Director’s eyes widened considerably at her statement, staring at the redhead for a few seconds before finding the words to retort. “Tha-that’s ridiculous! Why would there be Servants like that here?! Assassin of all classes survived until the end?! And multiple of them?! No way!” And back to the nervous anger she went. Honestly, Ritsuka wished that she could’ve just kept her mouth shut about the Assassins, but this was a detail far too important to keep hidden. “How would you even know that they were Servants? They were probably just some malicious spirits or something.”

“I saw them myself. I could clearly view their parameters.”

In response to the confirmation, the Director grew pale. Though it seemed that anger was doing a great job in covering her fear again, before she could respond angrily, Mash cut in.

“I agree with Senpai’s statement. While I might still be a novice, I definitely felt a response from them. It was unlike anything I’ve experienced, far different from the skeletons.”

Upon hearing Mash agreeing with Ritsuka, Olga Marie managed to somehow grow even pailer than she had been, her face nearly matching her hair. “S-so there really are other Servants?! Why didn’t you say so sooner?! This changes everything! What are we going to do if more show up?! We only have Mash to fight, so if multiple appear, we’re dead!”

“Ahem!” Coughing into her fist to catch the panicking woman’s attention, Ritsuka continued the explanation. “Although they definitely were Servants, they were extremely weak ones.” Calming down the slightest bit upon hearing her words, Olga Marie turned her full attention to Ritsuka. “While they were stronger than the skeletons, absolutely capable of killing humans, a strong blow from Mash was enough to kill them.” Relief returning to her eyes, the Director turned to face Mash hopefully, wishing for confirmation from the Demi-Servant.

“That is correct. Their weakness was notable. While they were Servants, they seemed more like incomplete ones, or parts of one.”

Upon the confirmation, the Director almost immediately returned to her earlier, confident self. Determination returning to her eyes along with relief. “Hmph, you should’ve started with that, you  _ almost  _ got me worried. If what you said is true, then we have nothing to fear from these so-called ‘Assassins’. They were probably some low-level wraiths. A bunch of nobodies that couldn’t become proper Servants, so they just manifested here with the other undead. Yes, that’s definitely it.” 

“That sounds quite plausible,” Ritsuka admitted with Mash nodding on her side. While the Director’s hypothesis was convincing, though it sounded like she was mostly trying to convince herself, Ritsuka really hoped it would turn out to be true. If there were other, proper Servants here, their situation would be far more precarious than anticipated. The Director was most likely also wishing that was the case with all her might.

“Now, I assume this matter has been resolved and there is nothing more to report?” Olga Marie asked, looking between the two of them, and since no arguments were voiced, she pointed at the garage door. “Then I, Olga Marie Animusphere, declare this operation started! Mash Kyrielight, Ritsuka Repo! We are heading out immediately! Our objective is to find a high enough viewpoint to activate Sigma, so we begin by scouting the city for a suitable spot!”

“Yes, Director.” Answering simultaneously, both Mash and Ritsuka stood from their seats and moved to the door, with the Demi-Servant opening it to let them out. As she did, Fou was quick to hop on her shoulder, seemingly preferring a ride to walking. Though as they emerged from their safe spot and entered the burning city once more, Ritsuka couldn’t shake the bad feeling she had about the earlier conversation.

  
  


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“Over there. That should suffice.”

Following the line from Olga Marie’s pointed finger towards the distance, Mash and Ritsuka both turned to face the single large structure in the city that had been left relatively unharmed. The large, red bridge linking the two sides of the city across the river.

“The bridge, right?” Mash confirmed while gauging the distance between it and them. It would take them around ten minutes of walking to reach it by her estimate. Indeed, the arches of the bridge were just about the highest point they could reach safely. Some of the burning and partly collapsed buildings in the distance may have been taller, but trying to climb them would be dangerous, even with her as a Demi-Servant. All and all, it was the best spot available.

“Yes. Once we get there, we’ll get in contact with Romani and that idiot, and have them help us activate Sigma. As soon as that’s done, we’ll be able to start tracking down the source of our troubles.” Her explanation finished, the Director walked ahead with Mash following close behind, Ritsuka by her side.

For the next few minutes, everything went well. While a few skeletons appeared from time to time, Mash had no trouble dispatching them. And while it was still scary, she was starting to get used to fighting. The impacts from her attacks were the most alien feeling at the start, but getting used to her new strength over time lessened it considerably. Yes, if it was just basic fighting, she could do it. But that was the problem,  _ basic  _ fighting. She still had no idea how to properly use her Noble Phantasm or her Skills, which basically made her a failure of a Servant. And while she had talked about it with Doctor and her Senpai, she really didn’t know how she should proceed. How would she even start a conversation on something like that.

“...Hey, Mash,” the Director spoke, catching her attention. “Is it possible that you can't use your Noble Phantasm?”

Hearing the question, Mash had to seriously wonder if the Director had read her thoughts. But as she thought about it, the question was perfectly valid. While the skeletons were weak, a Noble Phantasm could have been used to deal with them more quickly. Yet neither she or Ritsuka had even once suggested using it. Seeing no point in denying it, Mash just came out with the truth. “That’s right. I don't even know which Heroic Spirit fused with me... Thus I am unable to properly wield my Noble Phantasm. ...I can somehow use it as a weapon. but its output is decreased. I can't even release its True Name. In fact, I don't even know what the origins of this weapon of mine might be.”

Mash could feel her mood drop further with each sentence, yet there was nothing she could do about it. These were just factual truths. Falling silent, Olga Marie had a slightly concerned look on her face, which made sense considering that she realized the gravity of Mash’s words.

“Oh, yeah. About that.” Both of them turned to Ritsuka who had just spoken up. She had a serious, yet calm look on her face, as if she were appraising Mash. Particularly, she was eyeing her shield. “We did talk about this earlier, right? Before we went to save the Director.”

Her eyes widening from the sudden realization, Mash recalled the conversation from earlier. About how her Senpai had some idea of why she couldn’t fully use them. They had to postpone it due to the urgency of reaching the Director, so it had slipped her mind, but now would be the perfect time to ask her about it. “Y-yes. That’s right, Senpai. You said you had a theory as to why I couldn’t properly use some of my abilities.”

As Ritsuka nodded in confirmation, Mash felt the slightest bit of relief swelling in her chest. “Now, I want to remind you that this is just a theory. I have no concrete evidence on this, so what I’m about to say is purely speculation.” Pausing for a second to look Mash straight in the eyes, Ritsuka’s gaze seemed to almost be asking for permission to continue. Essentially, she didn’t want to ignite any false hope with her theory, in case it was wrong. But to Mash, that didn’t matter. She would take just about anything that could help her at this point. In response to Ritsuka’s gaze, she nodded, wishing for her to continue. “Alright then. Basically, the reason that Mash can’t use the full abilities of the Servant she fused with, is because the fusion itself is still incomplete.”

“The fusion... is incomplete?” Mash was admittedly confused. And seeing how Olga Marie raised an eyebrow at the suggestion, she was most likely too. What exactly did Ritsuka mean by that? In her own mind, she had properly fused with the Servant. “Umm... Could you elaborate, Senpai? How does that differ from me just not being able to use the Servant’s powers?”

“Well, I first thought about it when I saw your... appearance.” Walking closer to Mash, Ritsuka seemed somewhat uncomfortable for some reason as she crouched to point at her feet. “Like the Doctor so... tactlessly pointed out earlier, your outfit is... quite something to say the least. But the parts that most trouble me are here,” Ritsuka pointed, before moving her finger towards Mash’s abdomen. “And here. Like, while your feet and ankles are well protected, your shins are completely bare. Even more so with your stomach. While your neck and chest are armored, as well as your hip area, the armor just abruptly ends, leaving your stomach bare.”

“Like parts of it were missing...“ Olga Marie mumbled, also walking closer to inspect Mash. Not that Mash really minded. She had been observed like this throughout her life, so she was quite used to it already. “Not a bad theory, rookie. You believe the same is true for her Noble Phantasm?”

“And some of her Skills, yes.” Confirming the inquiry, Ritsuka stepped a bit further away. And while she still kept her eyes on Mash, they were now focused solely on her head area for some reason. “I can see her basic parameters like Strength and Endurance just fine, as well as what I believe are her Class Skills. However, while I can’t really  _ see  _ the rest of her Skills or her Noble Phantasm properly, they are still there.”

“They are there, but you can’t see them properly?” Mash repeated in confusion. Again Ritsuka was speaking in a manner she didn’t understand. Perhaps it was because of her inexperience with people, but Mash really wasn’t sure. “I’m sorry Senpai, but I still don’t quite understand.”

In response, Ritsuka pinched the ridge of her nose, seeming somewhat troubled. Was it because of what Mash had just said? Maybe what her Senpai had said should have been clearly obvious, yet she was just too inexperienced to understand it. Not wanting to trouble her, Mash was just about to apologize when Ritsuka spoke up. “Yeah, sorry. Of course it doesn’t make sense when I describe it like that. It’s just... hard to explain properly. Give me a minute to find some better words.” 

For the next few seconds, Ritsuka stood there, mumbling inaudibly while snapping her fingers. Mash wasn’t really sure why she kept snapping like that. Perhaps it was a technique to help her concentrate? But soon the snapping stopped as Ritsuka’s troubled eyes cleared up a bit, turning back to face Mash now that she’d found her words. “Okay, think of it like this: I can see your other statistics clearly, but when I try to look at your Noble Phantasm and other Skills, they’re really foggy and blurred. So, while I know that there is  _ something  _ there, I just can’t make out  _ what  _ it is. And since that’s the case, then-”

“Wait a minute.” Surprised by the sudden interruption, both Mash and Ritsuka turned to face Olga Marie, who was seemingly inspecting Mash with ever growing inquisitiveness. “I can understand the part about her Skills, but what about her Noble Phantasm?” Stepping closer so that she could lay her hands on it, the Director touched the center of Mash’s shield with her right hand. “This shield is definitely a Noble Phantasm, so how do you explain that?”

“Well... I did have a theory on that too.” Moving her eyes around the shield, Ritsuka seemed to be straining her eyes as she looked at it. Most likely trying to analyze it, for no avail. “For now, the biggest issue is that we have no idea what the true name of Mash’s Noble Phantasm is. I’ve been thinking about it ever since I laid eyes on it, trying to find a match for it from the descriptions of famous shields, but I really have no clue about this shield’s identity. It’s definitely not Aegis, nor does it match the descriptions of either Achilles’ or Ajax shields. If I had to guess, unless it’s from a myth or legend that was lost or something, this shield might not be something the Servant that Mash is fused with wielded during their life. It could very well be the physical manifestation of a legend about a knight famed for their ability to protect or defend someone or something.”

“Yes, that’s definitely possible,” Olga Marie agreed, her tone sounding the slightest bit dejected. “And there are quite a few knights fitting that description, so deducing its true identity won’t be easy.”

While Mash had been mostly silent throughout the conversation, the weight of the words spoken weighed down on her mind. Thinking back to her short encounter with the Servant she had fused with, Mash really wished she had asked them something, anything. Yet she couldn’t even recall their form properly, nor had they said a word to her. She had absolutely zero clues. But, there had to be something she could do. She could handle the skeletons just fine, but if something more powerful showed up, they could all be in serious danger. She could protect both her Senpai and the Director far better if she could just use her Noble Phantasm, yet the mere idea of them deducing its true name seemed to slip further with each word. “Then... What should I do?”

“Well, I did say that the fusion might still be incomplete. So, the obvious step would be to strengthen the connection between you and the Servant. As for how to do that...” Pausing for a moment, Ritsuka seemed slightly frustrated. The redhead snapped her fingers a few times, seemingly thinking about something, yet apparently unable to come up with any solutions to her problem. In the end, she coughed lightly in her fist turned back to Mash. “As I was saying. Now, I know how simpleminded and plain this sounds, but I believe that the best way for you to unlock your true abilities as a Servant, is to, well...  _ break them in. _ ”

“Huh?!”

Ignoring the dumbfounded exclamation from the Director, Mash let Ritsuka’s words sink in. ‘To break them in.’ While Mash understood the idiom, she wasn’t really sure how to interpret it in this case. “Uhm... Senpai, could you please elaborate a bit. I’m admittedly still a bit lost.”

“Now, you know when you get new shoes and they feel strange and unfamiliar on your feet before you break them in and get used to them? At the most basic level, I believe you should do the same here. As you get more used to your Servant powers, using them should become easier, more natural and thus progress your unification with the Servant.”

The suggestion was... exceptionally simple. So simple that Mash hadn’t even considered it a possibility, yet... her Senpai did have a point. She had only been a Servant for a bit over an hour, so development of her abilities was certainly a possibility. While she was dejected that her abilities as a Servant were quite inadequate, if she just tried hard enough, she might be able to improve herself.

“Wow. You really weren’t kidding when you said it sounded plain.”

Voicing her opinion first, Olga Marie stared at the redhead with a plain, unimpressed look on her face. And while she kept her stoic, calm expression, Ritsuka’s eyes disclosed the slightest hints of dejection in response. Well, this was only to be expected, since mages always preferred their solutions to problems to be as mysterious and complicated as possible. Though after a few seconds, the Director’s face returned to her usual expression, turning around to walk again. “But, the suggestion itself is not all bad. Hopefully we don’t face anything too troublesome here, so that Mash can work on her condition back at Chaldea.”

Appearing slightest bit happy at the Director's words, Ritsuka turned to Mash with a soft smile. "And there you have it. Essentially, just work hard and do your best. Of course, I'll help you as best as I can. If their Servant is having an issue like this, it's the Master's duty to help them out."

The last words her Senpai had said: 'it's the Master's duty to help them out.' For some reason, while they made Mash happy, she also felt... embarrassed. Of course, her Senpai offering to help her made her happy, but... "Senpai... shouldn't that be the other way around? A Servant is supposed to help their Master. And yet you..."

"Don't be stupid." Surprised at the sudden interruption, Mash raised her head to look Ritsuka in the eyes. While they still looked as kind as ever, there was a newfound sternness in them. "While it's true that Servants fight battles for them, it's the Master's job to support their Servant both in and out of battle. After all, a Servant's strength is the same as their Master's, so if there is a problem, it should be solved as efficiently as possible. Do you understand?"

The way she said that... While the words and the logic behind them were proper for a mage, the way Ritsuka had said them was anything but. She genuinely wanted to help her. Once again, Mash felt that strange warmth she had felt back at the Command Room, when her Senpai had held her hand. She really was lucky to have someone like her for a Master. "Yes, Senpai!"

"If you two are done, I'd like to remind you that we have a job to do."

“Ah!” Turning to face the sudden call, Mash noticed that the Director had already walked a few dozen meters ahead of them. Tapping her foot impatiently, she had her familiar scowl locked on to them. 

“Hurry it up, will you? We’re almost at the bridge, so we should start preparing Sigma.”

“Yes, Director!” Making a quick dash towards their frustrated boss, Ritsuka was quick to reach her side, Mash right behind her. “But, how exactly do we prepare.”

“We can’t. It has to be done from Chaldea,” Olga Marie stated as she began to walk again, pointing at Ritsuka’s wrist. “Open up the communications with Romani. We’ll talk while walking.”

“Alright.” Following right behind the Director, Ritsuka opened the communication function on her Multi-Appliance. “Doctor? You there?”

“Yeah. I’m hearing you loud and clear.” Confirming the connection, Romani once again appeared on the projected screen. “Did you need something?”

“Has Arista or anyone from the Reactor room arrived there yet? We’ve had enough time to walk across several city blocks, even with interruptions, so they should have made it there by now.” Asking for the report, Olga Marie grew irked as soon as she saw Romani shaking his head.

“Not yet, but they should be on their way. I received a status report a few minutes ago, saying they were gathering all necessary tools and automatons available. So they ar- huh?”

Noticing the sudden interruption, the three of them stopped once again to look at the confused Doctor on the screen. The Director being the first to question him. “What’s wrong? Did something happen, Romani?”

“They’re actually almost here. But it seems they’re coming from the eastern entrance,” Roman mumbled as he clicked on his console. “But according to the scanners, the containment walls are still up, so they’ll have to find-”

**_CRRRREEEEAAAAK_ **

Covering his ears over the awful creaking audible even through the line, Romani stared at his side, somewhere away from the screen, with a dumbfounded expression. The Director on the other hand, responded with her usual way. “What was that sound just now?! Did something happen?!”

Staring for a few more seconds before realizing he was being addressed, the Doctor turned his now nervous face to address them. “Well,  _ something  _ technically did happen. My reinforcements finally got here...“ Taking a pause to tug his collar a bit, Romani revealed the reason for his nervousness. “Arista opened the containment wall... the most direct way possible...“

“He WHAT?!” Making its triumphant comeback, the Director’s anger flared as strong as ever, all the while Romani shook on his seat. To Mash at least, that sounded quite normal. After all, for the roughly two years she had known him, Mr. Arista had been quite a peculiar person. “Does he have any idea how much those things cost?! You tell that idiot to-”

“IT WAS ALREADY BUSTED!”

Hearing the sudden, distant voice over the comm line, Olga Marie stopped her freak out for a few seconds. Long enough for Arista to elaborate. “THE WALL’S HARDWARE WAS TOTALLY WRECKED! WE WOULD’VE HAD TO TEAR IT DOWN ANYWAY, SO I TOOK A BIT OF A HEAD START!”

At the end of the sudden announcement, everyone present turned their attention to the Director, seemingly wanting to yell some more, but lacking a proper reason now. After a few seconds of silence, her anger had cooled down, though she was clearly still frustrated. “Alright, fine. Now, I need you to get to work. We’re going to use Sigma to scan the city, but we’re... lacking on supplies.”

“Oh, yeah. You had quite a sudden Rayshift, didn’t you?” Hearing the voice suddenly far clearer, Mash noticed that a little note had appeared at the bottom of the screen, indicating an additional caller. Though for now at least, there were no visuals, only Arista’s voice could be heard. “To use Sigma properly, we would need Sky Eye to support it at your location, but you don’t have it, nor can we Rayshift it there. Well, ain’t this a pickle.”

“Don’t even start with that,” Olga Marie groaned at the screen, though Mash didn’t quite understand why. She didn’t find anything worth getting frustrated over in his statement. But, the Director was quick to make her reasons known. “I know that tone you’re using. It’s your: ‘Oh, man. I’m just so damn smart’-voice.

“Well, it is accurate.” Stating it like it was an obvious fact, Arista managed to get the Director to groan even louder. “Now, then. I’ve got your situation basically figured out from Roman’s report, so there is actually a plausible way to make Sigma work without Sky Eye. Mash, you actually became a Demi-Servant, right?”

“Yes, that is true. I’ve formed a contract with Master Ritsuka Repo.” Upon confirmation, Mash heard an impressed whistle over the line. Considering Arista’s overall interest in Servants and the extraordinary success of the experiment in general, the Demi-Servant anticipated a very detailed examination from him once she returned to Chaldea. Not that she really minded. While the man could act quite bizarrely from time to time, of all the mages in Chaldea, he had come closest to treating her like an actual person. Well, in Mash’s eyes, that spot went to her Senpai at this point in time.

“Ignoring how absurdly awesome that is for a while, I’ll get a thorough analysis of your abilities later, so for now, I just need to know one thing: How strong are you? As in Strength parameter wise?”

“Oh, I-um...“ Mash... actually didn’t know the exact answer. While she knew that she was very strong, she didn’t know the precise, accurate ratings of her abilities. Should she just give a rough estimation? But what if he needed to know exact numbers...

“Her Strength is C Rank.”

Turning her head in surprise, Mash was greeted with an amiable smile from Ritsuka. She was then quick to return it with a thankful nod.

“Alright, a solid mid-tier, then. That’s good. Had she been something like an E, this might’ve been tricky. Here’s what we’re gonna do: Roman, start booting up Sigma. We need it to be ready. Meanwhile, I’ll explain to our Field Agents over there what they need to do.”

“Roger that. I’ll begin right away.” Starting his typing again, Romani muted his transmission, letting the trio in the Singularity listen to Arista's instructions properly.

“First, open the little panel on the wrist side of your Multi-Appliance and take out the tracking chip. It’s light blue and on the right side of the panel. Press lightly on it to get it out.”

Doing as she was instructed, Ritsuka removed the device from her wrist and flipped it over. There, like Arista had instructed, was a small panel, yet...

“Hey, hold on a minute.” Interrupting the working Master, Olga Marie directed her words at their faceless adviser. The reason being obvious to those present. While the panel was indeed there, it was held in place by tiny, yet sturdy looking screws. “We’ll need a screwdriver to open this. If we try to force it open, we might damage some of the delicate parts, losing our only way of communication. You’d think a ‘genius’ like you would’ve thought of that, Arista.”

“Um, Director? That really shouldn’t be an issue. I can just do this.” Earning the attention of the somewhat gleeful Director, who thought she had finally found something to legitimately criticize Arista over, Ritsuka raised her right pinky, strengthening it along with the nail, and began to unscrew the panel. Over the course of a second, Olga Marie’s face went from glee, to embarrassed frustration, likely due to the fact that she hadn’t really thought of such a simple solution. Not that Mash herself had either, though she had considered offering to open it herself. After all, as a Demi-Servant her nails would most definitely be even sturdier than her Senpai’s strengthened ones.

“Nice. The Real Superpower of Common Sense strikes again. This one is definitely a keeper, Olga.” Giving his approval to the redhead, much to the Director’s further frustration, Mash spotted the slightest hints of a smile on Ritsuka’s lips as she began working on the final screw. Seemingly happy from just the slightest bit of praise, she managed to open the panel, placing the detached screws carefully in her pocket and removing the requested chip.

“I have it. Now what do we do?” As Ritsuka held the light blue computer chip between her fingers, Mash noted how small it was, around the same size as the nail on Ritsuka’s pinky. While it was normal for modern appliances to have such tiny and delicate parts, this was definitely on the smaller side. They’d have to be extremely careful not to lose or break it, treating it with the utmost care. After all, without the tracking chip, communications with Chaldea would be far more difficult.

“Good, now we get to the fun part. For this to work, we need two points with direct connection to Chaldea. The chip would usually serve as the point on the ground, but this time we’ll just improvise. Since we are keeping up a constant communication line, the Multi-Appliance itself will be the connection point on the ground, while the tracking chip will be the higher one. Once you get it high enough, we’ll be able to activate a quick scan. Since the connection through communication isn’t quite as stable as the chip, the quality will drop a bit, but Sigma should still be able to create a full map of the city and some areas around it.”

“Fun?” Seemingly gotten over to most of her frustration, Olga Marie questioned the man’s choice of words. It really did seem odd. Why would the scanning procedure be fun? “How is raising the tracking chip to the appropriate height fun? Now that I think about it, how high exactly should it be?”

“Well, if you want to scan the whole city, roughly one kilometer straight up should do it.”

Silence took over the area as an immediate response to Arista’s words. As the bridge was one of the rare, intact areas of the city, not even the crackling of flames could break the quiet atmosphere. If it weren’t for the shared looks of disbelief on all their faces, Mash would have thought she had misheard him. A kilometer. Straight up. How were they supposed to accomplish something like this?

“DON’T SCREW WITH ME!!!” Startled somewhat by the sudden scream from the Director, Mash shared a perplexed look with her Senpai, who returned it in kind. Earlier, Olga Marie had sounded so confident in them utilizing Sigma and now this happened. While Mash could understand her frustration, she was still overreacting like usual. “HOW THE HELL ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO THAT?!? I SUGGESTED THIS PLAN BECAUSE YOU HAD MENTIONED ONCE THAT SIGMA COULD BE USED WITHOUT SKY EYE! BUT THIS?!? ARE YOU JUST SCREWING WITH ME ON PURPOSE?!?”

“You done? Good.” Once the enraged Director had vented enough of her frustration, Arista began speaking again. Despite the outburst and the impossible task he had given them, his tone was as calm as ever. “Obviously I wouldn’t have suggested this if it was impossible for you to accomplish. I’m not that much of a dick. Besides, I revealed the method already, just think back a bit.”

Her anger now giving slightly way to confusion, Olga Marie looked perplexed as she brought her hand to her mouth, thinking back on their conversation. Seeing how Ritsuka was doing the same thing, Mash began recalling Arista’s instructions herself. Yet, no matter what, she couldn’t find any direct way for them to accomplish what was required of them. Had he used some kind of riddle or wordplay or- “Ah!” Hearing the sudden gasp from her side, Mash turned to her Senpai, now having realization written all over her face. But for some reason, she was looking directly at her. “You don’t mean...?”

“That’s right! Ten points for the new girl!” Mash was now even more confused, as was the Director seemingly. Yet that changed suddenly, as she too turned to look at Mash in disbelief. Now she really felt out of the loop. What was she missing? Why were they looking at- “Mash. You’re going to take the tracking chip and throw it.”

“H-huh?” The words hit Mash like a truck. That was why both the Director and Senpai had looked at her like that? But she couldn’t possibly do something like that. She was a Servant, yes, but something like this was still far from her reach. “Wait. Please wait. I can’t do that. The chip is supposed to be thrown straight up, correct? But I lack that kind of precision. If I threw the chip, we would definitely lose it. How am I supposed to accomplish this?”

“By doing your very best.”

Silence, once more. Yet this time it was far more unnerving to Mash, seeing how she was the main subject for it. The Director looked just about ready to explode once again, but before she could unleash her fury, Ritsuka was the one to speak up. “Yes, yes. No pressure or anything, mister Arista. Come one, Mash. Let’s discuss the easiest way to do this.”

Huh? Was she... actually considering it? Mash looked at Ritsuka in disbelief, yet only received a serious look in return. Did her Senpai really have this much fate in her? “But, Senpai... I really don’t think I can do this. I’ve never really been particularly good at throwing objects, and to throw something straight up... The swing of my arm would definitely throw it off course...“

“That’s why you’re not swinging your arms.” Responding so matter-of-factly, Ritsuka was really giving a feeling that she knew what she was doing. “Now, have you ever played volleyball, Mash?” Obviously she hadn’t. While she of course knew what it was, Mash never even had the opportunity to play it. When she really thought about it, Mash didn’t really even know if she knew enough people to form two whole teams. To lack something as basic as this... It really proved her immaturity as a person. “I see. That’s a no then. Well, I’ll just have to give you some basic instructions.”

In response to her words, Mash brought a hand to her face. Was her facial expression really so obvious that Ritsuka didn’t even need words to receive her answer? But, she had to put those thoughts aside for now as she noticed her Senpai had started to crouch, seemingly doing some kind of demonstration.

“Alright. Since you have the strength of a Servant, you don’t need to use your full strength to throw something this small. In this case, precision is far more important anyway. First, jump as you are throwing. Not only can you jump  _ really  _ high as a Servant, but it’ll add to the momentum of your throw. And finally, the move itself. It’s pretty simple really, just mimic me as you throw.” Bringing her hands together above her head and looking straight up, Ritsuka straightened her legs and jumped. Before she lost her momentum, she shot out her arms, hands still together, straight up. If her memory served correct, Mash believed that in terms of volleyball, the maneuver was similar to an overhead pass. In case of sending something straight up, it would definitely be more accurate than a swinging motion. Finished with her demonstration, Ritsuka landed nimbly on her feet, seemingly used to jumping like this. The jump itself had been quite impressive, at least in Mash’s eyes. At the height of her jump, Ritsuka’s feet were nearly a meter above the ground, even with her legs straightened out. Now turning back to her, Mash could feel her nervousness rising as she was looked at in anticipation. “You got that, right? Try it a few times before your actual throw to get a hang of it.”

Holding out her hand, Ritsuka presented a tiny piece of rubble to Mash. Realizing she was meant to use it for practice, she picked it up, tension rising in her heart. Calm. She needed to be calm. After all, this was just a practice throw, so there’d be no trouble even if she failed at her try.

“Mash.”

No trouble. No trouble at all. Her Master, her Senpai believed that she could accomplish this. After all, she was a Servant. A fledgling, yes, but still a Servant. If she couldn’t even do something this simple on top of not being able to use her Noble Phantasm, then she’d be an absolute failure of a Servant. She had to do this. She couldn-

“Mash.”

Feeling a hand on her shoulder as her name was called, Mash turned her head slightly upwards to look Ritsuka in the face. While her face was serious, she once again had that kind look in her yellow eyes. But why did she call her so suddenly? She had just given her the piece of rubble. “Yes? What is it, Senpai?”

“You need to calm down.”

Huh? How did she notice? Mash thought she had hidden her anxiety quite well. Her face had remained neutral and she wasn’t even sweating. There shouldn’t have been any obvious clues. “What do you mean, Senpai?”

“Mash,” Ritsuka sighed, now looking at her with a somewhat amused expression. “You stood there staring at that piece of rubble on your hand for over 20 seconds.”

Feeling heat rising to her cheeks, Mash stared at Ritsuka in disbelief. Both at the statement, and herself for not noticing something like that. Had she actually done that? “I, uh... I’m sorry. I don’t really know what to say. I’m just not sure if I-”

“Take a deep breath.” Seeing do reason to disagree, Mash did as she was told. Feeling her lungs fill to the brim, she held her breath. “And out.” Releasing the held breath, she now emptied them. “And in again.” Inhale. “And out.” Exhale. Blowing the air out, Mash noticed to her surprise that she was genuinely feeling better. Obviously proper breathing helped one remain calm, but she hadn’t realized her’s had been that out of sync. “Good. Now listen, Mash. There’s no need to be nervous. This is a practice throw. Even if you don’t nail it on your first try, there won’t be any consequences.” Yes, she was right. Senpai was absolutely right. Why had she gotten so nervous in the first place? Even if she failed, a single failed practice throw wouldn’t doom her in Senpai’s eyes. Now she honestly just felt childish.

“Although, there might actually be quite a large, dangerous consequence if we take too long.” Hearing the words, Mash felt her heart jump a bit, but as soon as she saw Ritsuka’s face, she calmed back down. With a slight smile, the redhead pointed over her shoulder inconspicuously. “The Director might get really mad.”

Looking at the woman in question, Mash was surprised to see her leaning on the side of the bridge, her right foot tapping in a quick session. While she wasn’t looking at them, she seemed to be as frustrated as usual. Hearing a small snicker from Ritsuka, Mash couldn’t help but to let out a giggle of her own. “Yes. I should do my best then.”

“Right.” Nodding in agreement, Ritsuka moved back a bit to give her space. “You don’t need to go all out at first. Try a throw with a shorter distance to get a feeling to it.”

“Yes! Mash Kyrielight, here I go!” Pumping herself up, Mash crouched, gathering magical energy in her legs. Holding the piece of rubble in her hands, she raised them right above her head as she looked up. Yes, this was just like Senpai had demonstrated. And then, after taking a deep breath, she jumped. From the sound, she could tell that she had shattered the road underneath her as she took off, but that was not important, she had to focus. 15 meters was what she had aimed for as the height of her jump, so right after she flew over the 10 meter mark, she shot her hands out, launching the rubble into the sky. 

As the speed of her jump slowed down, she kept her eyes on the rubble, still rising as it flew across the air. But while wanted to keep her eyes on it, she had to take a second to look down in order to land properly. Confirming she was landing on the same spot, Mash quickly moved her eyes back to the piece. It was still amazing how much her eyesight had improved. While she was starting to have trouble given the small size of the object and the darkness of the sky, she still managed to track it at, 4, maybe 500 meters. Bending her knees to land, still keeping her eyes on the target, she heard Ritsuka speak from her left. “Nice throw, Mash. It’s going really high.”

“Yes, Senpai, but it’s already starting to descend.”

“Really?” she questioned, seemingly moving her head around from what Mash could see on her peripheral. “Even after I strengthened my eyes, I can still only barely see it.”

Yes, it was descending, and fast. Judging the distance, Mash took a few steps to her right, lining herself up to catch the piece of rubble. It wasn’t at the exact spot where she threw it, but still quite close, this could really work. Falling lower and lower, faster and faster, less than 100 meters now remained between her and the target. Cupping her hands to ensure the catch, Mash waited... And waited... And waited... And...

As the piece finally entered a reasonable range, Mash jumped towards, catching it midair. “Nice catch!” she heard Ritsuka call from her side. As she landed firmly on the ground, the redhead was quick to come to her side. “Only three meters off from the throwing spot. Very nice.”

“Yes.” In all honesty, Mash felt really good. She had expected the task to be far more difficult than it had been. And while she hadn’t reached the required height yet, she was sure she could do it after a few more practice throws. But, that didn’t mean she wasn’t still nervous about the actual throw. “I’m ready for a few more tries, Senpai.”

“Sure thing. Take as many as you need.”

For the next ten minutes, Mash practiced throwing the rubble higher and higher, slowly getting the feel for the accuracy required to properly catch it. At her sixth attempt, as she looked down for her landing, she noticed that Ritsuka had gone to talk with the rather frustrated Director. While curious, she had to keep her eyes on the rubble, lest she lost it. As she felt her feet touch down, Mash kept her target in sight. She had thrown this one somewhere between 800 and 900 meters, so she had temporarily lost sight of it, but now that it was descending, she could spot it again.

Waiting for the right time, she once again jumped to catch the piece, now used to the process. Landing on the bridge, she felt happy over her spot. There had only been a difference of one meter from where she threw it. With a few more tries, she might even be ready for the real deal. Though as she thought about it, she felt her nervousness rising yet again. While she had done well with the practice throws, the chip would definitely be different than a random piece of rubble. Due to its lower weight, the wind might blow it off course or her aim might slightly be off and it could fall in the river. And unlike the piece of rubble, if she messed up once it would all be over. No scan, no map. Mash didn’t even want to think of the possibility.

“You’re getting really good at this, Mash.” 

Shaking the negative thoughts from her head, Mash turned to look at Ritsuka walking towards her... With a tiny ball of cloth that was slightly glowing. It was around the same size as the rubble she had been throwing, roughly the same as a ping-pong ball, but what it was for, Mash wasn’t really sure. “Senpai, what is that cloth?”

“Well, I tried to think of a way to ease up your task, and this was the end result.” Handing the ball to the curious Demi-Servant, Ritsuka continued her explanation. “I thought it would be easier if we put the chip inside something for your actual throw. So I asked Director Olga Marie for some assistance. She then gave me this handkerchief and used some magecraft to both keep its shape and make it glow. It should weigh about the same as the piece of rubble, so it shouldn’t throw off your aim. And since it glows, it’s far easier to see.” Moving the ball of cloth on her hand, Mash had to agree with Ritsuka’s statement. The weight was about the same and if there was a difference, it was far too small for her to tell. Then there was the color. Without a doubt, she would be able to see this white cloth far easier than a grey piece of rubble. The glow itself was more of an add-on than anything, making Mash certain she could spot the ball even after she threw it up to a kilometer. “So, want to give it a testrun?”

“Yes.” With the confirmation, Mash crouched to begin her jump. At this point, the move itself was easy, given her practice throws. Not that it had really been complicated in the first place, but her feel for the required strength had been honed, making it far easier to gauge distance. And then, like all the other times, she jumped. Rising up to fifty meters, she made her throw, launching the ball high in the sky. While the procedure itself was the same, the results were noticeably different. Now that had switched to the clothball, Mash had absolutely no trouble seeing her target ascending towards the clouds. In fact, it would have been hard not to notice it, as it shined like a lone star in the cloudy sky.

Looking down for her landing, Mash noticed that both her Master and the Director had walked up close to her landing spot. Doing her best to soften the impact so that she wouldn’t send either rubble or dust their way as she landed, Mash bent her legs right as she made contact with the ground. “Good work, Mash. That’s definitely going high enough.”

Straightening herself up, Mash came face-to-face with Ritsuka, who offered her a thumbs up and a smile. Reciprocating it with her own, the Demi-Servant then turned to look at the Director, looking... surprisingly calm, as she looked up at the sky. “Yes. That will definitely go up to a kilometer. I’d say even a hundred meters extra.”

“Whoa, leave it to the head of the Astromancy department. To be able to tell even from this distance...“ Ritsuka muttered, gazing at the sky herself. Though as she did, Mash managed to catch a proud smile sneaking on the Director’s lips for the slightest moment.

As they silently waited for the ball to start descending, Mash couldn’t help but to notice Olga Marie’s current demeanor. She was currently just about the calmest she had been during their time in the city. And as she thought about, she gave voice to a question that had lingered in her mind for some time now. “Director, may I ask you something?” Turning to face her upon being addressed, Mash was given a nod of confirmation. “You really don’t mind us taking up time like this? I had honestly expected you to be... well frustrated at the idea of Senpai and I wasting time.”

Lifting her eyebrow at the last part, Olga Marie’s stare nearly turned into a glare. However, despite the implication, she managed to remain relatively calm for her answer. “Well, I really don’t mind you making a few practice throws to ensure that the scan goes off successfully. Besides, you’ve only taken a bit over ten minutes. Without Sigma it would take us hours to even somewhat scout the city. I don’t mind taking a few extra minutes to ensure that the operation runs smoothly.”

That... was honestly somewhat surprising. Mash had always felt that the Director was an uncompromising person, who accepted no excuses. Yet here she was, letting them take their time to complete a task. Between this and her actions with freezing the Master candidates, Mash had learned about the Director far more than during her entire time in Chaldea.

“Heads up. It’s coming down.”

Looking up on cue, Mash locked her eyes on the ball of light descending across the dark, cloudy sky. She silently thanked her Senpai again for coming up with it. It was just so easy to see. Waiting as the glowing cloth descended lower, lower, and lower, Mash bent her knees, ready to jump. And as the ball was only 50 meters away from the ground, she jumped, her cupped hands above her ready to receive the target. And receive it she did. As she caught the ball, Mash could hear a faint: “Nice,” from down below, courtesy of Ritsuka.

As she landed back on the bridge, the redhead was quick to walk to her, the smile on her face now quite noticeable. “Good job, Mash. Now we’re all set.” Yes, they were. Feeling the tension inside her mind rise once again, Mash took a few breaths in an attempt to calm herself back down. All the practice throws had gone well. She could do this. She  **had** to do this! Both Senpai and the Director counted on her. And as she was completely focused on calming her nerves, Mash almost didn’t notice Ritsuka holding out her hand until it was right in front of her face. Looking up in confusion, the Master continued holding her hand in front of Mash, clearly wanting something. “Mash? The ball?”

Ah. So that was it. While she wasn’t exactly sure why, Mash handed back the ball without question. And as Ritsuka took a few steps towards Olga Marie, a voice spoke up from her Multi-Appliance. “OK. And with that, I’m off. I’ve got to go check up on the shitshow that the Catalyst Department has been reduced to, so I’ll be seeing you later.”

What just... Why was Arista leaving? Wouldn’t they need his help to properly use Sigma? Well, he had given them all the instructions they needed, but wouldn’t it still be better if he had stayed over for the-

Mash’s train of thought came to a complete halt as she watched Ritsuka hand over the clothball to Olga Marie. Then the Director unraveled it, carefully folded it and placed it in her pocket, and finally, gave Ritsuka a light blue computer chip. With it done, she spoke into Ritsuka’s Multi-Appliance, now removed from her wrist and held in Olga Marie’s hand. “Is everything going well, Romani?”

“Yeah. Running smoothly, we’re getting everything and- Woah! Woahwoahwoahwoah!! What’s up with these readings?!”

Ignoring the rambling Doctor in the background, Mash turned to face Ritsuka, who appeared quite sheepish, something Mash had yet to see from her. “Senpai?” she asked, trying to comprehend the situation. No. Her mind understood essentially what was happening. But as for how and why, those were the questions on her mind.

“Yeeaahh... Good work, Mash. We activated Sigma without a hitch.“

Silence fell between the two girls, disturbed only by the quarrel of the two grownups behind them. Mash... had done it. She made the throw to activate Sigma perfectly. Yet she had been unaware of doing it, believing it to be just another practice throw. She should have been happy to have accomplished her task, but the only thing in her head was confusion. “Why... why didn’t you tell me about the chip, Senpai?”

For the first time that Mash had seen, Ritsuka looked... uncomfortable. Her calm countenance became awkward and embarrassed as she looked off somewhere behind Mash while rubbing her neck. “Well... ugh, this is kinda hard to say, but... your biggest issue during the throws was your nervousness. So, I had you throw the chip in secret so that you could fully focus on it.”

Mash blinked in surprise. That was her biggest issue? While she had been nervous, yes, she had been far more worried about her own inability to accomplish the task instead of being distracted by her nerves. But as she thought about it, the fact that she hadn’t been nervous at all during the last throw was certainly true. That was something she couldn’t argue. However, that didn’t mean she didn’t have any. “But what if I hadn’t taken the throw seriously and had botched my attempt? Or accidentally thrown it into the river? Or-”

“Mash.” Interrupted from voicing her what-ifs, Mash watched as Ritsuka’s face returned to her usual, calm state. The awkwardness from seconds ago was gone, now replaced with seriousness. “We’ve only known each other for a few hours, but during that time, one thing has become obvious. You always try your best when it comes to something important.”

That... was true. Of course Mash would try her hardest when they were in a situation like this. After all, if she hesitated in a critical moment, either Senpai or the Director could be seriously injured, or worse. Honestly, Mash felt happy that Ritsuka had acknowledged her efforts like that, but that’s all it was. Effort. She couldn’t guarantee that her skills or strength could actually match it, so there was no reason to solely-

“And, I knew you could nail the throw already.” Blinking in surprise, Mash tried to ask how she could possibly know that, but Ritsuka continued before she managed to. “Because, your earlier throws were already so close. You really had no reason to fail this one. There was only one problem: your anxiety. I saw how nervous you were before your first try and a few times between throws. Basically, the biggest hindrance was your self doubt. So, I did my best to make it a non-factor.” Finishing her explanation, Ritsuka returned for just a second to her earlier, awkward tone. “Well, I am sorry about tricking you like that.”

Mash had... complicated feelings over all this. On one hand, she was happy that her Senpai had not only acknowledged her efforts, but also had fate in her abilities. And on another, she felt embarrassed and slightly annoyed over the fact that she had been tricked so easily. Well, considering that the outcome was just about perfect, Mash decided to lean on the happy. “I accept your apology, Senpai. But... I hope you won’t trick me like that again in the future.”

“I’ll try my best not to.” Nodding in confirmation, Ritsuka, together with Mash, finally moved their attention to the Director who was busy berating the Doctor on the screen.

“For something on this level to be here... Are you absolutely sure you can handle this, Director? You could wait a bit until you can return to Chaldea and better equip yourselves.”

“Out of the question!” Rejecting poor Romani’s rejection outright, Olga Marie turned her attention to Mash and Ritsuka. While she did appear the slightest bit frustrated, she was clearly more determined now that she actually had a clear location in front of her. “You two finished with your talk? Good. Because we now have a clear location in mind.” Pointing at a rather impressive map of the entire city on the projected screen, Olga Marie’s finger focused on a mountain at the very western end of it. From the map, there appeared to be some kind of cavern there. “In this cave, there is a massive magical energy source. It’s without a doubt the Grail we are looking for.”

“I see,” Ritsuka muttered as she eyed the map. But as she did so, Mash clearly noticed that she seemed to be looking at places other than the cavern. “Well, it’s good that we now know exactly where to go. Definitely beats wandering around the whole city, just hoping to find something.” Nodding in agreement, Olga Marie handed Ritsuka her Multi-Appliance back, which she quickly placed back on her wrist. Though after she did, she still eyed the map curiously. “Roman, can I ask you something?”

“Sure, go ahead.”

“What exactly are these?” As Ritsuka pointed at several points on the map, Mash too noticed what she had been so curious about. There were three masses of magical energy in different spots across the city. While they were nothing compared to the mass in the cave and lacked proper forms, they were still noticeable enough that Sigma had picked them up. “I’m mostly asking because one of these is only a few blocks away from us on the map.”

“Hmm. That is a good question,” Romani admitted he too began to look at the spots closer, soon joined by the Director. “I’m honestly not sure. Perhaps some stronger skeletons? I can’t really tell, since Sigma was activated so haphazardly.”

“What do you mean?” Ritsuka asked. “Would the map be different if we could activate it properly.”

“Vastly. It’s not even funny how inferior the current use of Sigma is to the real deal.” As he explained the device to Ritsuka, Romani was also seemingly zooming in on the map, trying to get a clearer picture on the magical energy masses. “If it was working at full extent, we’d be getting a real time 3D mapping of the whole city. So if Sigma is normally a video, it’s currently just a single photo.”

“Woah...“ Ritsuka gaped at the explanation. Mash too had a similar reaction the first time she learnt of Sigma’s functionality. When it came to observing large areas, it was a tremendously useful tool. “Chaldea really has some amazing stuff. And somehow more and more just keep piling up.”

“Hmph, of course,” Olga Marie huffed proudly. It was quite clear that she was enjoying Ritsuka’s amazement. “Nothing less should be expected from an organization responsible for protecting the Future of Humanity.” Though as much as she was enjoying the current situation, she quickly turned serious as she turned to the Doctor. “But, whatever these things are, they could end up being a problem. Have you tried analyzing them, Romani?”

“Of course. It’s just...“ Looking increasingly uncertain Romani clicked a few buttons to share a clearer picture with the trio in the Singularity. And it was... a blob. “They don’t have a coherent form, so making a scan is impossible. It’s like they lack proper mass or-”

Suddenly falling silent, Romani’s expression shifted from puzzled to alarmed. Mash had only seen him looking like that once or twice, and only when there was something seriously wrong. “Doctor? What is it?”

“The three of you need to get out of there now! Head to the east side of the river!”

“What!? What are you talking about!?” Lingering somewhere between confusion and anger, Olga Marie was the first to respond. “To get to the Grail we need to go to the west! Explain yourself, Romani!”

“I'm picking up something on the west side! It’s most likely one of those things we spotted on the map, and I now know what it is!”

As the Doctor was about to identify the unknown source of magical energy, Mash got her answer first. A terrible chill ran down her spine. It was similar to what she had experienced with the Assassins, but far stronger. On the ground Fou cried out, staring towards the west in an aggressive manner. Instinctively, she materialized her shield and jumped in front of the two still talking with Romani, now perfectly positioned between them and the approaching threat. “Senpai! Director! Please stay behind me!”

“Huh? What are you talk-”

Ritsuka’s sentence was cut off. If Mash had to guess, it was because she had turned around and noticed the same thing her eyes were fixed on. A woman in a dark hood was making her way towards them. Her absurdly long purple hair together with what appeared to be a scythe in her hand, made it clear that this was no ordinary person. Yes, there was no doubt in Mash’s mind what this woman was.

“A-a Servant?!?” Hearing the Director’s screech from behind her, Mash now knew that they were all aware of the situation. As for how they approached the situation, it now depended on the woman’s intentions.

“It seems there’s still some left.” The tone of her voice was chilling, her eyes even more so. The way she looked at them... If there was any word for Mash to describe it, it would predatory. The Servant made absolutely no effort to hide her true intentions. “Survivors.”

Putting up a strong front, hoping to discourage the Servant from attacking, Mash stood firmly between her and both the Director and her Senpai. “Hostile Servant detected! Master, please give me your orders!”

“Don't fight it, Ritsuka, Mash! It's too soon for you to fight a Servant!” Calling at her over the comms, Roman’s voice was extremely concerned, with Mash feeling very much the same. She really didn’t know if she could hold her own. “You should try to escape and-”

“I’m sorry, but that’s not possible, Doctor.” Interrupting the instructions, Ritsuka’s voice remained calm, but there was a noticeable feeling of tension in it. She clearly understood the danger they were facing, so why was she- “This Servant’s Agility is A Rank. Even if we tried to run, she’d catch up to us in no time.”

Mash could feel her tension rising as she heard the words. So escape really wasn’t an option. And given the Servant’s obvious hostility, the only choice for them was to stand their ground and fight. But could they really? The way this woman looked at them, it terrified Mash. The skeletons weren’t even on the same plane of existence compared to her. If she made the slightest mistake, the Servant would kill her instantly. And then, with no one to protect them, she would move on to the two standing behind Mash. They wouldn’t last more than seconds until-

“Mash.” Feeling a hand on her right shoulder, Mash glanced the slightest bit behind her while still keeping the Servant in her peripheral. Ritsuka’s mouth was close to her ear, her words quiet. “I’m sorry to ask you to do this, but we really have no other options now. I’ll do everything I can to support you, but you’ll have to be the one fighting this Servant head on... Can you do that?”

Looking at the Servant in front of her, Mash wanted to say no. Just standing in front of her like this terrified her. If it was possible, she would do everything she could to avoid fighting this woman. But, like her Senpai had said, they had no other option. So, doing her best to swallow the fear in her heart, Mash gave her answer. “...Yes, Master! I will do my best!”

“Thank you. As for combat instructions, start by focusing purely on defense. To form a proper plan, I need to see how she fights.” Nodding in response, Mash was once again thankful for how calm her Senpai managed to be in these situations. Had she panicked like the Director, Mash might’ve given in to her own fear as well, but thankfully that wasn’t the case. She was certain that as long as Ritsuka was right behind her, supporting her, she could defeat this Servant that was almost definitely stronger than her. “And as a final note, avoid that scythe at all cost. It’s definitely a Noble Phantasm, but we have no idea what it does. Sorry, but for now that is all the instructions I can give you.”

“No need to apologize, Senpai.” In fact, Mash had to wonder why she did. The instructions were simple, but in her opinion they were correct for a Master. When it came to battles between Servants, information was always vital, and even the slightest bits of it could grant one of the fighters an advantage. “I’ll do my best to buy time so that you can form a plan.”

“Done saying your goodbyes?” The chilling tone together with the words spoken were enough to cause another chill to run down Mash’s spine. The enemy was most likely trying to terrify her on purpose. But, she had to stay strong. After all, she didn’t need to win. All she had to do was buy time, so that her Senpai could come up with some plan. That’s right. With her here, Mash could definitely win. 

Then, the woman finally started walking towards her. She was seemingly in no hurry, simply walking towards them calmly, which only made her more terrifying. Licking her lips, she raised her scythe and pointed it towards Mash. “I’ll be starting with you little girl. How many hits do you think that shield of yours will last before I shatter it?”

And with those final words, she dashed. With unbelievable speed, the woman had closed the gap between them and was swinging her scythe towards Mash’s neck before the Demi-Servant could take even a single step. Gritting her teeth to drive the fear away, Mash raised her shield, facing the enemy Servant’s swing with every bit of defensive power she had.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, this took longer than expected.  
> Not really much to say at this point, since believe it or not, the chapter was supposed to be even longer. Originally, Druid Doggo was supposed to show up and it would have continued for a bit after the Medusa fight. For obvious reasons, I decided to cut it in half.  
> At this point, there isn't that much difference compared to the game yet, but that'll start to change from the next chapter onward, so look forward to that, I guess.
> 
>  **[On the notion of Chapter Releases: I will attempt to post new chapters during the first week of each month. However, if I finish a chapter early and the next one is well on its way, I might release them early.]**  
>  Also, I'm already 4 days late this month, though since the last month was February, I was kinda cheated from 2-3 days.


End file.
